Cultivating Community2015-08-02T19:22:55Zhttp://cultivate.ning.com/ning-blog/feed/allThe Purpose of Community Platformshttp://cultivate.ning.com/xn/detail/6618825:BlogEntry:99862014-07-16T18:00:00.000ZRichard Millingtonhttp://cultivate.ning.com/community/RichardMillington<div><p>The platform for a community performs a single function: to facilitate interaction between members. An excellent community platform improves the quality and quantity of interactions between members. A bad community platform inhibits interactions between members. </p><p>Unfortunately, many organizations use platforms which restrain the growth of their communities.</p><p><a href="http://api.ning.com:80/files/vKR8mtf*1cokuQ85K5CfcZk2RJuFzReK7nzMYKL*8UP1lGp0b8HFQ*8j8D5tf8FJtuZ6plwHmMlzRlDOdY8lw7FdAa8wgl8w/axstjcommunityimg_8442stj1013960.jpg" target="_self"><img src="http://api.ning.com:80/files/vKR8mtf*1cokuQ85K5CfcZk2RJuFzReK7nzMYKL*8UP1lGp0b8HFQ*8j8D5tf8FJtuZ6plwHmMlzRlDOdY8lw7FdAa8wgl8w/axstjcommunityimg_8442stj1013960.jpg?width=750" width="750" class="align-center"/></a></p><p>The platform is one method of facilitating interactions since for most online communities it is the only place where members will interact with each other. This is not a certainty, though. Many organizations develop platforms that are aesthetically pleasing, in line with other brand material, and clearly adhering to modern user experience principles. There is a problem with each of these aspects, but first we need to understand the biggest flaw in organizational thinking towards community platforms.</p><p>A content-led approach is common amongst branded online communities. Aesthetics and content is given higher priority than the interactions. This platform prohibits interactions between members. Many organizations develop a platform using a similar approach as a traditional website. In this approach, the designer/developer identifies what is needed and embraces this knowledge to design the platform. However, a community platform and a company website serve two different purposes. The former services to facilitate interactions between members, the latter serves to provide information to the target audience.</p><p><b>Ignoring the positive examples</b></p><p>Many organizations fail to research positive examples of online communities before embarking upon the development of their own platform. This means these organizations ignore best practices in favour of developing a community that adheres to more aesthetically pleasing concepts like those found in company websites.</p><p>Thus, whilst most successful communities use a simple, proven, interaction-focused platform, most organizations develop a custom, unproven, expensive community platform. </p></div>Before You Spend $500K On A Community Platform...http://cultivate.ning.com/xn/detail/6618825:BlogEntry:99872014-07-09T16:50:00.000ZRichard Millingtonhttp://cultivate.ning.com/community/RichardMillington<div><p><a href="http://api.ning.com:80/files/vKR8mtf*1crtZ5ZnRIz*DFolpumh1r0D1Te1r*XzUJ40nUdPabk4a8-ShghZ*cp9G4rPfKICisJluqyh*VMWZLUcxQwDrlt*/questionmarkicon_22.png" target="_self"><img src="http://api.ning.com:80/files/vKR8mtf*1crtZ5ZnRIz*DFolpumh1r0D1Te1r*XzUJ40nUdPabk4a8-ShghZ*cp9G4rPfKICisJluqyh*VMWZLUcxQwDrlt*/questionmarkicon_22.png?width=350" width="350" class="align-right"/></a>Before you spend a lot of money on a community platform here are some things to think about:</p><p><b>1) Do you have an audience ready to use it?</b> This should be the priority. Build the community before you spend heavily on a platform. Why would you launch a platform for a community that doesn't yet exist? That's a huge gamble. Use something simple to get started and invest more as your community grows.</p><p><b>2) Is there a better use for the budget?</b> Most of the time, it's far better to spend the money on more/better community managers than a platform. It's not the platform that determines the community's success, it's the community manager. I've seen communities thrive on terrible platforms and fail on terrific platforms, but I haven't seen many succeed with terrible community managers. Nine times out of ten, your budget is better invested in community managers that <i>do things</i> on the platform.</p><p><b>3) Does it have the right, few, features?</b> This is a typical situation, an organization lists every feature it wants the audience to be able to do then looks for a platform that has those features. You can see the problem: the audience won't use those features. You won't know what features the community needs until you have an active community. In most communities, only 2 - 3 features are used. You don't need a platform that offers as many features as possible, you want a platform that does specific features really well. The minutia of the discussion boards should be of great interest to you. The fewer features you use, the more concentrated your activity (LINK) is. That's a good thing. </p><p><b>4) Can you easily change the platform?</b> You might think an organization wouldn't invest $500k on a platform without realizing it will need continue maintenance/changes, but then you would be surprised. This isn't a single cost, you need to be able to change and adapt the platform to suit the community. These costs can rise extravagantly. </p><p><b>5) Does it feature activity above everything else?</b> Don't create a content site as a community site. If it's a content site, feature activity for people to read. If it's a community site, feature activities which people to participate in. </p><p><b>6) Do you have a HIGHLY trained staff for it?</b> I threw this one in there at the last minute. Last week I spoke to an intern managing a community that uses an enterprise platform. Even she agreed it was madness for her to be responsible for such a huge investment. </p><p>Don't spend the majority of your budget on the community platform. Start simple, grow slowly, invest more as the community grows. Gradually you learn what the community needs and you can add those features. </p><p></p><p><em>(Image via The Noun Project)</em></p></div>Power and Influencehttp://cultivate.ning.com/xn/detail/6618825:BlogEntry:99882014-07-02T16:30:00.000ZRichard Millingtonhttp://cultivate.ning.com/community/RichardMillington<div><p><a href="http://api.ning.com:80/files/vKR8mtf*1coaOK6RDV3hCVEplHPIM-eyTtopRi1QAMlhRjnSjKtCWomB01drpJL7Hui9ZeiYWqjpHPDTITcOp3jeNq1y9so0/Superheroicon_3217.png" target="_self"><img src="http://api.ning.com:80/files/vKR8mtf*1coaOK6RDV3hCVEplHPIM-eyTtopRi1QAMlhRjnSjKtCWomB01drpJL7Hui9ZeiYWqjpHPDTITcOp3jeNq1y9so0/Superheroicon_3217.png?width=350" width="350" class="align-right"/></a>You don’t have much power.</p><p>You can remove people and posts. You can write announcements. You can probably prioritise the content of some people above others. That’s about it.</p><p>You can’t use your power to get any member to do anything. Much of what we recommend is impossible unless you have influence. You can have influence in one or two ways.</p><p>1) You can become a highly respected and influential power user in your community.</p><p>2) You can develop great relationships with respected and highly influential members of the community.</p><p>You have a choice. Do you spend your time becoming the most influential member of your community or by becoming great friends with the most influential members of your community. The former is more tempting. It’s great if everybody knows your name. But it is a lot more work.</p><p>It’s easier to identify the key people and build strong relationships with them. Give them real power and then when you need something to happen, letting them know.</p><p>Start today. Pick the five people who made the biggest contributions in the past month and introduce yourself. Ask them how you can help them improve the community. You have to give before you get. Work hard to help the key people in your community before you ask the key people to help you.</p><p></p><p><em>(Image via The Noun Project)</em></p></div>8 Overlooked Elements Every Online Community Should Havehttp://cultivate.ning.com/xn/detail/6618825:BlogEntry:100682014-06-25T16:30:00.000ZRichard Millingtonhttp://cultivate.ning.com/community/RichardMillington<div><p><a href="http://api.ning.com:80/files/vKR8mtf*1cr0jsQdkBLOwV*GGrGzh6neiWXN1hfAZ761DOliHFApk6PRNZzahFj7qH6RIi6zsdIaHpEYkFhLNkMDw6aqNYUc/Clipboardicon_14295.png" target="_self"><img src="http://api.ning.com:80/files/vKR8mtf*1cr0jsQdkBLOwV*GGrGzh6neiWXN1hfAZ761DOliHFApk6PRNZzahFj7qH6RIi6zsdIaHpEYkFhLNkMDw6aqNYUc/Clipboardicon_14295.png?width=350" width="350" class="align-right"/></a>Most communities overlook a number of elements that would increase engagement and participation. Here are, by far, the 8 biggest elements every online community should have.</p><ol><li><b>An epic community history.</b> Your community should have a <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.feverbee.com/2009/11/epichistory.html">written epic history</a> which all members can read. This history should be easy to find on your page.</li><li><b>A 'who’s who'</b><b>of members.</b> You should feature prominent members in your who’s who of members. This will create interest and desire to be featured in this list. You can have a selection criteria.</li><li><b>A list of upcoming events.</b> Every online community should have a list of upcoming events/activities taking place. They can be hosted by your community or, more broadly, events about the community’s topic matter. Don’t have any? Start some.</li><li><b>The big issues page.</b> What are the big issues in your online community at the moment? You should have a page or box dedicated to the big issues in your community along with an invitation to give an opinion on the issue.</li><li><b>Plans for the future.</b> When members join a community they’re investing their time to be a co-owner of a better future. You need to outline what the future for your community looks like.</li><li><b>A useful FAQ.</b> Most new members usually ask very similar questions (they might have joined solely to ask the question). So put together an FAQ solely about these questions. On <a href="http://commania.ning.com/">Commania</a> this would have included: “<i>How much should I charge for community building work?”</i> and “<i>What platform should I use to create a community”</i>. Compile these questions and link them to where they have been answered.</li><li><b>Be more involved page.</b> Every online community should offer ways members can <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.feverbee.com/2008/12/get-more-involved.html">be more involved</a>.</li><li><b>Your contact number.</b> This is your job, your members are your customers, they should be able to reach you by phone to resolve issues. Talking by phone also builds a stronger connection than by e-mail. Buy a <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.skype.com/allfeatures/onlinenumber/">SkypeIn number</a> if you have to – but offer a number members can call.</li></ol><p>You will notice nearly all of these elements provide members with ways to learn more about the community or become more involved with the community in the future. This is how it should be and where you should always be focusing your efforts.</p><p><em>(Image via The NounProject)</em></p></div>A Simple Online Community Reputation Systemhttp://cultivate.ning.com/xn/detail/6618825:BlogEntry:100702014-06-18T16:50:00.000ZRichard Millingtonhttp://cultivate.ning.com/community/RichardMillington<div><p><a href="http://api.ning.com:80/files/JKksqYJJ9YjevJ*gHrir6mpbgGlrVumBObdtCgyqZ9Jngm-l0AaFXuY-ugyyrAZBZBcei9G7iFcFdi4rfN9QlvGL-eJLVe*t/Trophyicon_1198.png" target="_self"><img src="http://api.ning.com:80/files/JKksqYJJ9YjevJ*gHrir6mpbgGlrVumBObdtCgyqZ9Jngm-l0AaFXuY-ugyyrAZBZBcei9G7iFcFdi4rfN9QlvGL-eJLVe*t/Trophyicon_1198.png?width=350" width="350" class="align-right"/></a>Identify the positive contributions you want members to make and reward them with points. Points highlight the top members, points establish an element of competition. Points let you create awards like <i>newcomer of the month, member of the year</i> etc…</p><p>Points should lead to levels. Levels like newcomer, member, regular, expert and VIP. Levels give members specific motivations to earn more points. A member that needs just 10 more points to move up a level is likely to be active.</p><p>Levels bond members within their community groups. These levels should be clearly visible on every member’s profile and every comment they post. Each level should require twice as many points as the previous level (at minimum). Levels should lead to increasing recognition and power. Every increase in level thus offers greater reward.</p><p>For example, you might only mention individual members in your news updates who are regulars and above. You might only interview members who are experts and VIPs. You might only share power and admin access with members at VIP levels.</p><p>Quick warning. Never add too many game mechanics into your community at one time. Introduce one element at a time. Points. Then levels. Then stars, comment counters etc…</p><p></p><p><em>(Image via The Noun Project)</em></p></div>A Basic Online Community Wireframehttp://cultivate.ning.com/xn/detail/6618825:BlogEntry:101622014-06-11T16:50:00.000ZRichard Millingtonhttp://cultivate.ning.com/community/RichardMillington<div><p>The design of most online community sites is terrible.</p><p>Aesthetics is put before function. It's not clear to visitor's what's new in the community. You're not sure what's popular at any given moment. The best communities show this information, and they show it well. </p><p>I recommend a simple community design. A basic wireframe might look similar to the design below:</p><p> <a href="http://api.ning.com:80/files/iAT0B9wCR3AUeOlQX8J2AsgSIeK4ck92R1vmzDYs3RbQHMfdE1FMMV9MDZPToXT9pDiOlrrRi0xRYVLUm1ImtQmbtWgds2uT/RMWireframe.png" target="_self"><img src="http://api.ning.com:80/files/iAT0B9wCR3AUeOlQX8J2AsgSIeK4ck92R1vmzDYs3RbQHMfdE1FMMV9MDZPToXT9pDiOlrrRi0xRYVLUm1ImtQmbtWgds2uT/RMWireframe.png?width=750" width="750" class="align-full"/></a></p><p>There are other variations of course. The key point is every visitor can see, in a heartbeat, what's new and popular in your community.</p></div>Essential Elements Of Community Platformshttp://cultivate.ning.com/xn/detail/6618825:BlogEntry:101642014-06-04T16:40:00.000ZRichard Millingtonhttp://cultivate.ning.com/community/RichardMillington<div><p>Don't compare community platforms by the features they do/don't have. Compare community platforms by the features that are essential to you and how well they execute on those features. The number of <i>essential</i> features is very limited. </p><p><a href="http://api.ning.com/files/JKksqYJJ9YjbGW*uDVimJlsdmDzylBpQfm5qmmtHrcJtnL7R6bv-CQaBQhFFiEziJ3IqaVwfIzoSFK7W1WiTzK832gD7GYFR/5069101413gs5069.jpg" target="_self"><img src="http://api.ning.com/files/JKksqYJJ9YjbGW*uDVimJlsdmDzylBpQfm5qmmtHrcJtnL7R6bv-CQaBQhFFiEziJ3IqaVwfIzoSFK7W1WiTzK832gD7GYFR/5069101413gs5069.jpg?width=350" width="350" class="align-right"/></a></p><p><b>Discussion area</b>. Members need a place in which they can interact. This will usually be a forum-based. </p><p><b>Notifications</b>. Members need to <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.feverbee.com/2011/12/the-notification-cycle.html">be notified</a> when people have responded to their posts. This keeps members coming back. It sustains activity. </p><p><b>Analytics</b>. You need to be able to properly track what's going on. You need to know what's going on beneath the surface. </p><p><b>Member profiles</b>. Members need <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.feverbee.com/2011/05/memberprofiles.html">to create</a> and use a consistent identity within the community.</p><p>Looking at this, you can partly see why <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.big-boards.com/">forum-only communities are thriving</a>. They offer nothing but the essential features. They're far more successful than any feature-backed platform. </p><p>But this neglects a more important point, <i>depth of features</i>.</p><p>Within each element, there are a range of subtle, but essential, options. Does the discussion area of the platform you're considering enable exporting of data, and integration with FB/Twitter? Can you embed the latest discussions elsewhere? Does it support different access levels, category creation, sufficient admin features, and customization of design?</p><p>Is it clear if there are any new posts when someone visits? Does it show both total posts or just the total number of new posts since the last visit? </p><p>Perhaps even deeper, how much space does every discussion take on the page? Are discussions spaced out in a way that only shows 5 discussions on a page? Or does it show 25?</p><p>The mistake many people make here is they compare platforms by breadth of features they rarely need and are unlikely to use as opposed to the depth of essential features. If you're in the process of choosing a platform, look to at the depth and subtle variation between the key features, not the breadth of features. </p><p> <em>(Image via Graphic Stock)</em></p></div>Moderation Strategyhttp://cultivate.ning.com/xn/detail/6618825:BlogEntry:101672014-05-30T10:40:00.000ZRichard Millingtonhttp://cultivate.ning.com/community/RichardMillington<div><p><a href="http://api.ning.com:80/files/q34XLvoT5YgyQGsUVNQS3zriDtYtVUcc7lDlAL2pDmPpQ8Y9EVT0jXYZsk8-qCVi6vLjQgdOqnPlihyIWrQIES8VPH*Y7Uyj/keysicon_6260.png" target="_self"><img src="http://api.ning.com:80/files/q34XLvoT5YgyQGsUVNQS3zriDtYtVUcc7lDlAL2pDmPpQ8Y9EVT0jXYZsk8-qCVi6vLjQgdOqnPlihyIWrQIES8VPH*Y7Uyj/keysicon_6260.png?width=150" width="150" class="align-right"/></a>Do you have a moderation strategy? Or do you just remove provocative posts (often the best kind)? </p><p>When members visit a community, they copy what they see other members doing. The important word in that sentence isn't '<i>doing'</i>, it's '<i>see'</i>. You get to decide what members are likely to see. Your moderation strategies shapes what members see and, thus, what members do.</p><p>Moderation isn't removing the bad stuff, it's making clear decisions about what you want members to be doing, and emphasizing those elements.</p><p>If you want members to discuss fiscal policy, then highlight those discussions, interview members discussing that, create a poll about fiscal policy, make fiscal policy discussions sticky threads. </p><p>Your moderation strategy shapes your community. It <a rel="nofollow" href="http://nudges.org/">nudges</a> members to take the actions you want. Pro-actively establish your strategy. Don't reactively remove the bad stuff.</p></div>20 Things That Should Be Included In Your Online Community Websitehttp://cultivate.ning.com/xn/detail/6618825:BlogEntry:102412014-05-27T15:30:00.000ZRichard Millingtonhttp://cultivate.ning.com/community/RichardMillington<div><p>Designing an online community spec can be difficult, there are some elements I think should be included in nearly every online community. These are:</p><ol><li><a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.joelonsoftware.com/items/2010/07/12.html">It’s own domain name</a>.<a href="http://api.ning.com:80/files/q34XLvoT5YgMNj7hriiK6GsALRUDi5v2RlD0iCSKZN4g1YWbiM9BRC01r7*Pd3RlXntSqMiwD54EnJDskUFKI7In2XbnCeeZ/2915science110002513310182013.png" target="_self"><img src="http://api.ning.com:80/files/q34XLvoT5YgMNj7hriiK6GsALRUDi5v2RlD0iCSKZN4g1YWbiM9BRC01r7*Pd3RlXntSqMiwD54EnJDskUFKI7In2XbnCeeZ/2915science110002513310182013.png?width=350" width="350" class="align-right"/></a></li><li><a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.feverbee.com/2010/04/the-application-form.html">An application form</a> to join the community.</li><li><a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.feverbee.com/2009/05/connect-with.html">Facebook Connect/OpenID linked</a> profiles.</li><li><a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.feverbee.com/2009/04/hompages.html">Latest activity</a> from members on the front-page.</li><li><a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.feverbee.com/2010/06/start-the-news-page-for-a-new-online-community.html">A news page</a> for content about the community (Should be the landing page.)</li><li>A forum for members to communicate.</li><li><a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.feverbee.com/2009/05/gamemechanics.html">Game mechanics embedded</a> deep within activity.</li><li>Sections named after people and/or community jargon.</li><li><a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.feverbee.com/2010/08/addvalue.html">These value-added pages</a>.</li><li>These <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.feverbee.com/2010/04/8-overlooked-elements-every-online-community-should-have.html">8 overlooked elements</a> too.</li><li>The ability for members to create their own sub-groups.</li><li>Commenting enabled for stories that appear on the news page.</li><li>The option to Tweet/Facebook-share any comment/story with friends/followers in two clicks.</li><li>Use Facebook plugins to show which of your friends are already members of the community.</li><li>The ability for visitors to read all community content (which isn’t private), but have to log in to participate.</li><li><a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.feverbee.com/2010/01/a-good-policy-to-introduce.html">Deactivation of accounts which are inactive</a> for 6 months.</li><li>The option for the admin to give increasing levels of access to community members to moderate comments, write content etc…</li><li>Every new member is prompted to answer a question which appears on a forum thread – hence prompting further responses and <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.feverbee.com/2009/07/secondvisit.html">converting the newcomer into an instant regular</a>.</li><li>Members receive notifications when someone comments on their profile or responds to their forum thread (and these can be turned off).</li><li>A Twitter sidebar which shows tweets by members in the community and allows members to respond (with an automatic hashtag) that shows up on the side of the bar. It’s like a mini chat-room, but promotes you and encourages <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.feverbee.com/2010/08/encourage-activity-elsewhere.html">off-website activity</a>.</li></ol><p>What other elements would you include?</p><p><em>Image via GraphicStock</em></p></div>How To Subtly Influence Your Online Communityhttp://cultivate.ning.com/xn/detail/6618825:BlogEntry:101662014-05-23T13:40:00.000ZRichard Millingtonhttp://cultivate.ning.com/community/RichardMillington<div><img src="http://api.ning.com/files/q34XLvoT5YiWqRPOPuMO--L5OhgZjbjcJk*xm1E9RBqrU7YsoZpBJSxGmA9XUbfu2dwt4Mk6EaIaan9E3e-TKznyaUeM5Mdq/business_1100011622012914int.png?width=400"></div><div><p>Direct influence is <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.feverbee.com/2009/12/power-and-influence.html">pretty weak</a>.</p><p>You can test it, tell your members to do something. What was your conversion rate? 10%? 5%? 1%? It's usually somewhere in that region.</p><p>People don't like being told what to do. This is especially true in branded communities. They like believing they have decided to do it for themselves.</p><p>Do you know the biggest influence on community members? Other members. People do what they see people doing.</p><p>If you want people to do something in a community, you need them to see people doing it. </p><p> </p><p><b>Relationships</b></p><p>If people do what they see others doing, you have the chicken and the egg dilemma. How do you get people to make a desired action in the first place?</p><p>Invest time building relationships with your key 50 to 100 members of the community. You need to build and sustain these relationships. When you want something to happen in the community, you can ask this insider group for their advice and opinions.</p><p>You can incorporate those ideas into the activity (to give them a sense of ownership) and work with them to make it happen. That insider group are the people that begin taking the desired actions in the first place. </p><p>Once people see this core group of individuals taking that action, they follow suit. </p><p> </p><p><b>Moderation</b></p><p>You can start discussions on topics or activities you wish members to participate in. You don't need to tell people to do anything here, you need to ask for their opinions and ideas on relevant topics. Reply positively to people that suggest an idea that fits in with what you want them to do.</p><p>You can also use your <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.feverbee.com/2011/08/stickythreads.html">sticky threads</a>. Whenever a member mentions an activity or action that you wish to encourage, you can set the post as a sticky thread to ensure more people see that action. You may also include these as a '<i>what's popular?</i>' selection on the landing page of the community. </p><p>If a member moves closer towards the activity you want, ask them what they would need from you to make it happen. Ask who else in the community might be interested in being involved? People want to hop aboard something they believe will be popular.</p><p>You can also be more responsive to positive contributions and less responsive to contributions you wish to encourage. This is the subtle act of steering the community in the direction you wish it to go.</p><p> </p><p><b>Content</b></p><p>Content is your second biggest tool of influence. You can use content to give a huge amount of attention to the topics/actions you wish people to take. Don't overplay your hand here. Don't force the agenda. Use your content to give attention to people that are already taking the desired actions. Reatively create the agenda. </p><p>You can write content which mentions them and their actions. You can interview them and let them talk about their actions. You can highlight their milestone achievements. You can create polls for people to vote on a relevant issue raised by members. You can create a member of the month award given to a member that has taken the desired action. You can include such actions in your community's history. You can give members who have take the desired actions opinion columns within the community to talk about it. </p><p> </p><p><b>Events/Activities</b></p><p>As more people begin to take the desired actions, you can develop specific events/activities for the action. You can develop a live-chat, led by members, about the action. You can help your members set up a specific day to participate in that desired action/activity. You can turn that action into a challenge for members to participate in and keep score of it. </p><p>Remember to be reactive to members taking the actions, don't try to force your agenda directly upon your members. Your members want to feel ownership of their contributions. They want to feel the community has risen up to undertake this action. </p><p> </p><p>Your biggest influence over a community is your subtle influence. If you master subtle influence, the value and effectiveness of your community will increase significantly. </p><p><em>Lead Image via Graphic Stock</em></p></div>4 Types Of Contributions You Want Your Members To Make Into Your Communityhttp://cultivate.ning.com/xn/detail/6618825:BlogEntry:102432014-05-20T15:30:00.000ZRichard Millingtonhttp://cultivate.ning.com/community/RichardMillington<div><p><a href="http://api.ning.com:80/files/q34XLvoT5Yjn8wnd1r8UqWTsJQd1DaQWa0Q7X2La4jNx5Gqrvv*g5zyctvEp3je6k9s*sl-4tc*TfQJ*2JshHBu80hrM0z9f/funkyicon_clipboard_check.jpg" target="_self"><img src="http://api.ning.com:80/files/q34XLvoT5Yjn8wnd1r8UqWTsJQd1DaQWa0Q7X2La4jNx5Gqrvv*g5zyctvEp3je6k9s*sl-4tc*TfQJ*2JshHBu80hrM0z9f/funkyicon_clipboard_check.jpg?width=250" width="250" class="align-right"/></a>You need to work like crazy to encourage members to make lots of contributions (<a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.feverbee.com/2009/01/investments.html">tiny personal investments</a>) into your community.</p><p>The more investments you persuade your members to make, the more they will participate and help make the community succeed. This is because nobody wants to feel they wasted their investment.</p><p>There are four times of investments. Time, energy, emotions and money.</p><ol><li><b>Time:</b> The more time a member spends in a community the more they want it to succeed. This overlaps significantly with energy, but with a few distinctions.</li><li><b>Energy.</b> This is the effort members put into the community. i.e. Members who have written lots of posts, helped curate content, arranged events or otherwise actively contributed something to the community.</li><li><b>Emotions.</b> Nobody wants to feel they got worked up over nothing. Provoking strong emotional reactions are investments made into your community.</li><li><b>Money.</b> If you’ve paid to attend an event, have a custom URL, bought WoW gold you’re going to work hard to make the community a success.</li></ol><p>Tiny investments create engaged members. They <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.feverbee.com/2009/02/easyreason.html">convert newcomers to regulars</a>. The more personal investments your members make, the more they will be involved in your community.</p></div>How To Optimize An Online Community Platformhttp://cultivate.ning.com/xn/detail/6618825:BlogEntry:101652014-05-16T12:40:00.000ZRichard Millingtonhttp://cultivate.ning.com/community/RichardMillington<div><p>Optimizing the platform (the user experience) is part of the community manager's role which tends to get overlooked. Once it's developed, most people leave it. </p><p>It should be an ongoing process. The goal is to increase the number of interactions which take place in the platform. This is a process which can be continually refined. </p><p><a href="http://api.ning.com:80/files/q34XLvoT5YghaCgMfnnaIJNveIekb8THjjYhfEVXxG-bimDTjzNbA7OVqazP4HV237gXq5g07fHEFOS9scMPYsgxQsn5*Aq5/gears.png" target="_self"><img src="http://api.ning.com:80/files/q34XLvoT5YghaCgMfnnaIJNveIekb8THjjYhfEVXxG-bimDTjzNbA7OVqazP4HV237gXq5g07fHEFOS9scMPYsgxQsn5*Aq5/gears.png?width=400" width="400" class="align-right"/></a>There are some guiding principles for this:</p><p> <b>Guiding principles for optimizing the user experience</b></p><ol><li><b>Refine the most used features</b>. <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.feverbee.com/2012/01/newfeatures.html">Don't spent too much time</a> developing features members wont use. <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.feverbee.com/2011/10/refine-the-most-used-features.html">Refine the most used features</a>. Small refinements on discussion boards, notifications, layout/design, and profiles yield better results than adding new features.</li><li><b>Look for things to remove, not things to add</b>. It's usually better to remove things (text, elements that aren't used, pages with low traffic). If you begin with the goal of figuring what to add, you'll never optimize the site (and waste a lot of time/money). Keep a <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.feverbee.com/2011/04/social-density.html">high social density</a>. </li><li><b>Highlight the popular stuff</b>. Rank things by popularity. Put the most popular forum discussions first. List the most popular pages nearer the top. Shine attention on the most popular things. The more you can highlight what's popular, the more activity you will get. </li><li><b>Respond to what members do, not what they say</b>. Members say many crazy things. <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.feverbee.com/2012/05/getting-feedback-on-productsservices.html">Much of which can be ignored</a>. Focus upon what they do. If they don't like something, they wont use it. If you ask members what they want, use it for inspiration - don't let them vote. </li><li><b>Test &amp; measure</b>. This is a process. You wont get it right first time. You will get it right over time. Benchmark, change, <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.feverbee.com/2012/05/getting-feedback-on-productsservices.html">and measure</a>. The more data points you collect, the more accurate you will be. So comparing one day against the previous day isn't good. Comparing the same day one week against a similar day the next. But it's better to compare weeks and months against each other. Just be careful. November will trump December. Summer months are usually a little less active. Just be sure to measure like for like.</li></ol><p><b>A few practical ideas for optimizing the user experience</b></p><p>Within these principles, what can you do? Quite a lot. </p><ul><li><b>Notifications. </b><a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.feverbee.com/2011/12/the-notification-cycle.html">Tweak the notifications</a>. These affect every member. Shorten the message, change the text, tweak the subject line, change the 'from' field. Try provoking curiosity. Test, measure and assess. Over a period of time you should be able to optimize these. </li><li><b>Landing page</b>. Ensure the <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.feverbee.com/2010/09/creating-the-perfect-landing-page-for-your-online-community.html">latest activity is above the fold</a>. Tweak what you use. Typically 'latest activity' is filled with friend requests, comments on profiles and other boring information. Try <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.feverbee.com/2012/01/latest-activity.html">displaying the latest discussions instead</a>. Ensure upcoming events are listed above the fold.</li><li><b>Tone of copy</b>. Try tinkering with the copy. Remove out the redundant words. Use shorter sentences. Remove entire paragraphs when the information is easier conveyed in other ways. Also try changing the tone, make it more/less formal, more/less funny, <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.feverbee.com/2012/02/personalityproblem.html">add more personality</a>.</li><li><b>Remove blogging</b>. This isn’t true for every site but many would benefit from removing the blogging feature for members (groups too). In most communities, few people use it. Disable as many features as possible to concentrate activity.<a href="http://api.ning.com:80/files/q34XLvoT5Yj5OoDDVa7bt9tZl*G35vA6jpbWhTweylfww6dwkKrNrf27G1Rt*r6Rjqq1RkE6HsKJmHWi0UdRPxQe6sWKfEWB/funkyicon_clipboard_check.jpg" target="_self"><img src="http://api.ning.com:80/files/q34XLvoT5Yj5OoDDVa7bt9tZl*G35vA6jpbWhTweylfww6dwkKrNrf27G1Rt*r6Rjqq1RkE6HsKJmHWi0UdRPxQe6sWKfEWB/funkyicon_clipboard_check.jpg?width=250" width="250" class="align-right"/></a></li><li><b>Change the colours/design</b>. Make <a rel="nofollow" href="http://37signals.com/svn/posts/2991-behind-the-scenes-ab-testing-part-3-final">small</a>, <a rel="nofollow" href="http://37signals.com/svn/posts/2977-behind-the-scenes-highrise-marketing-site-ab-testing-part-1">tiny</a>, <a rel="nofollow" href="http://37signals.com/svn/posts/2983-behind-the-scenes-ab-testing-part-2-how-we-test">tweaks</a> in the colour and design of the platform. Try using a smaller number of colours. Ensure you follow consistent design principles.</li><li><b>Show unanswered posts</b>. Have an option to <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.feverbee.com/2010/12/getting-responses-to-unanswered-posts.html">show the unanswered posts</a> on the community-landing page. Encourage members to answer these especially tough questions. Make it a challenge.</li><li><b>Reduce the information requited to register</b>. Reduce the information required at sign-up to just a single page (ideally asking for the e-mail and password. Members can fill in the rest of the information later. Try using an <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.feverbee.com/2010/04/the-application-form.html">application form</a> instead.</li><li><b>Remove threading (or add single-threading)</b>. Classic example of a small, potentially important, optimization; change how the discussions appear in the community. Consider removing deep-threaded discussions (or removing it to one-thread deep).</li><li><b>Integration</b>. Improve the integration with social media platforms. Have popular discussions posted to followers on FB/Twitter/G+ with a question and a link to where they can participate. Ensure tweets mentioning the topic appear on the community site.</li><li><b>Automation</b>. <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.feverbee.com/2010/01/a-good-policy-to-introduce.html">Automatically deactivate inactive member accounts</a> (with a reminder), welcome new members with a responsive series of e-mails that reflects their action {after your 5th post we recommend you …}. Improve the feature to retrieve lost passwords. Congratulation members on milestones achieved. Close old discussions after 3 months.</li><li><b>Reputation</b>. If the community has been going for a while, consider <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.feverbee.com/2011/04/communityreputationsystems.html">embracing a reputation system</a>. A reputation system encourages people to actively share what they know to increase or maintain their reputation within the community. We cover this in great depth as part of the course.</li><li><b>Member profiles</b>. Ask <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.feverbee.com/2010/05/questions.html">more interesting questions in the profile page</a>. Where were you when you heard Michael Jackson died? (or something more relevant to the community topic. Ask questions that other members will be keen to click on the profile to find out the answer. Have a funny default image until members change it.</li><li><b>FAQ</b>. Add the most common questions in the FAQ. This doesn’t just have to be about the site, or the community’s history, but about the common questions people have about the topic. Make this an incredibly useful document that people want to read.</li><li><b>Go mobile, maybe</b>. You might also consider a mobile version of the site. Only consider a mobile version if it will increase the amount of activity on the platform from mobile users. If mobile users are still participating as much as regulars, this might not be the case.</li></ul><p>The best way to identify things that might work in your community, is to look at other top community platforms and see what they have done. However, be careful. Community platforms evolve. A community should launch with relatively few features and gradually expand from there. The community you’re imitating must be in the same stage of the lifecycle as you. Finally, remember that optimizing the platform is an on-going process, not a one-time event. Prioritize which elements you’re going to optimize (perhaps one a month), and gradually test to see what works best. Dedicate a certain amount of time to it (perhaps 5 hours a month?) and schedule when optimization will be undertaken (I like Friday afternoons). Some examples of platform I like include:</p><ul><li>The Student Rooms: <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/">http://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/</a></li><li>RockandRollTribe: <a rel="nofollow" href="http://rockandrolltribe.com/">http://rockandrolltribe.com/</a></li><li>Lenova: <a rel="nofollow" href="http://forums.lenovo.com/">http://forums.lenovo.com/</a></li><li>Element14: <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.element14.com/community/index.jspa">http://www.element14.com/community/index.jspa</a></li><li>Backyard Chickens: <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.backyardchickens.com/">http://www.backyardchickens.com/</a></li></ul><p>These platforms aren't the prettiest, but they're very effective at facilitating interactions between members. This is the sole goal of community platforms. </p></div>How Many People Can You Really Look After?http://cultivate.ning.com/xn/detail/6618825:BlogEntry:102442014-05-13T15:30:00.000ZRichard Millingtonhttp://cultivate.ning.com/community/RichardMillington<div><img src="http://api.ning.com/files/q34XLvoT5YjZPwkV-AFimc*7ABpyYCd6K4X6Y-CXYy5liLbQhsd0FL*Qca5jaQ9aX-27Ewr6GMGFyNHaXEEAvZESJe47b61z/ernscilnrt.jpg?width=400"></div><div><p>Growing a community that’s too big for you to manage is dumb. Sadly, it’s the goal of most corporate communities.</p><p>1 community manager looking after 10,000 members isn’t efficient, it’s wasteful. You’re wasting the potential of thousands of members who would participate much more if they had more people responsible for getting them engaged and involved.</p><p>Past a certain size, your community becomes unmanageable. You can’t spend as much time with members. You give each member less. In turn, each member gives less.</p><p>The remedy is more help. You convert your most dedicated into volunteers. Volunteers take on groups of members (divide by interest/friendship groups. These volunteers take responsibility for clusters of members. They ensure they don’t leave.</p><p>Figure out how many members you, personally, can take responsibility for getting involved. It’s probably not many. 50? 200? Past this number, recruit volunteers to help. Keep your community strong and concentrated. Don’t let yourself be diluted by an unmanageable level of newcomers. Don’t be tempted by bigger numbers to report to your boss.</p><p><em>Lead image via GraphicStock</em></p></div>Initiating and Sustaining Discussionshttp://cultivate.ning.com/xn/detail/6618825:BlogEntry:102452014-05-09T18:21:52.000ZRichard Millingtonhttp://cultivate.ning.com/community/RichardMillington<div><p>Sometimes tiny tweaks can make a profound impact upon a community.</p><p>A situation like this is common: </p><p>An organization is struggling to get people to participate. They initiate plenty of discussions but few people respond.</p><p>Overwhelmingly, the most common problem here (especially in branded communities), are the discussions themselves. They suffer from one of five problems:</p><p><a href="http://api.ning.com:80/files/q34XLvoT5YisPyWHNb0wh7YNL0L057tX8IwpTWChy0UM*8RFTy3k6nevZ-Qv3WkKijmE5u2KZL6kCbFCJthHMzXz-07hKqLr/91013tmcartbusiness2.png" target="_self"><img src="http://api.ning.com:80/files/q34XLvoT5YisPyWHNb0wh7YNL0L057tX8IwpTWChy0UM*8RFTy3k6nevZ-Qv3WkKijmE5u2KZL6kCbFCJthHMzXz-07hKqLr/91013tmcartbusiness2.png?width=300" width="300" class="align-right"/></a>1) <b>Boring topic</b>. The discussion itself is too boring. It’s usually a conveying-information discussion. These get a <i>weak</i> response. The discussion might also be based around a topic which isn’t relevant enough to members. Try status-jockeying/bonding-related discussions. Make sure the discussion is based around a topic <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.feverbee.com/2012/04/ensuring-the-community-personifies-the-interests-of-members.html">members have stated</a> they <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.feverbee.com/2012/04/turning-data-into-community-activities-a-simple-example.html">are interested in.</a></p><p>2) <b>Dull subject line</b>. The subject line of the post doesn’t draw people in. There is a difference between a descriptive two words on what the post is about and then <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.feverbee.com/2011/10/boostactivity.html">a subject line that draws people in</a>. </p><p>3) <b>Too formal/inhuman</b>. The post sounds <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.feverbee.com/2011/11/the-personality-of-community-managers-a-few-tips.html">too much like corp-speak</a> or <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.feverbee.com/2012/02/personalityproblem.html">fake-friendly</a>. You may laugh, but this is the second most common problem we come up against. Online we’ve forgotten how to act human. A related problem is it fails to connect the question to a motivation on behalf of the sender. For example, the initiator doesn’t explain <i>why</i> they’re asking the question. They need their own relevancy/experiences to the topic/experience.</p><p>4) <b>Too long</b>. Posts that are too long don’t get a very high response. People will read hundreds of short posts before they read one long post. Keep discussions short.</p><p>5) <b>Fails to ask a question</b>. You might be surprised, but there are a lot of posts that simply don’t ask a question for others to answer. Don’t be coy about this, have a clear question for members to answer. Vary <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.feverbee.com/2011/02/open-and-closed-questions.html">between open and closed questions</a>. Closed questions tend to be better for newer communities.</p><p>If you’re trying to start a discussion, make sure you ask the question in the topic, keep it interesting to members, keep it relatively short, explain why you’re asking the question, and act like a human being.</p><p>Also, be on the lookout for discussions that are rising in popularity or have obeyed the rules above and consider making them stick threads. They’re likely to get a far higher level of response.</p><p>Simple stuff, but effective. </p><p><em>Image via GraphicStock.</em></p></div>Back By Popular Demand: Ask Richard Millington Your Community Questionshttp://cultivate.ning.com/xn/detail/6618825:BlogEntry:121332014-04-30T19:00:34.000ZCrystalhttp://cultivate.ning.com/community/CrystalC<div><p><span>There were so many questions we didn't get around to answering from the last webinar that we're doing it all over again!</span><br />
<br />
<span>On&#160;</span><a href="https://www3.gotomeeting.com/register/435250166" target="_blank">Wednesday, May 14th</a><span>, FeverBee's Richard Millington will join us for another hour of Questions and Answers related to your community's growth, organization, and health.&#160;</span></p>
<p>Richard has helped 100+ organizations develop successful communities. Clients like The United Nations, Novartis, Oracle, Greenpeace, Autodesk, and many more. On On May 7th,&#160;he'll be here to help you. Take advantage of this unique opportunity, invite your colleagues, and come with questions!</p>
<p></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3" data-mce-mark="1">&#160;</span></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><span class="font-size-4"><strong>Wednesday, May 14th at 9am PDT</strong></span></p>
<p><a href="https://www3.gotomeeting.com/register/435250166" target="_blank"><img src="http://creators.ning.com/images/signupnow.png" class="align-center" /></a></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><span class="font-size-3">(find your&#160;<a href="http://everytimezone.com/#2014-5-14,240,6bj" target="_blank">local time here</a>)&#160;</span></p>
<p><strong>About the Presenter</strong></p>
<p><a href="http://api.ning.com/files/b5nNUCTifl2iwfZplOvJZvj5nHkm5jbufJl72GueCZgL5Y3MeOyuMKrSnxlC0Rv6nRQaj5kifs*j0iBm144*fTl8igZHqk9B/richard_millington_profile_photo_050813.jpg" target="_self"><img src="http://api.ning.com/files/b5nNUCTifl2iwfZplOvJZvj5nHkm5jbufJl72GueCZgL5Y3MeOyuMKrSnxlC0Rv6nRQaj5kifs*j0iBm144*fTl8igZHqk9B/richard_millington_profile_photo_050813.jpg?width=100" width="100" class="align-left" /></a>Richard Millington is the founder of FeverBee, a community consultancy, and author of the new book&#160;<a xt="SPCLICK" name="www_amazon_com_Buzzing_Communi" href="http://click.et.ning.com/?qs=560c57e3d19c1a56c67ddba1974f386d6fa9b833e60253373fa5865fd1a51365b08d12542be0bec1" id="www_amazon_com_Buzzing_Communi"><font color="#75AF2D">Buzzing Communities</font></a>. He&#160;is also a frequent guest blogger here on&#160;<a href="http://cultivate.ning.com/" target="_blank"><font color="#75AF2D">Cultivating Community</font></a>&#160;and our go-to presenter for the Community Management Talks series.&#160;His straightforward, results-oriented style is admired by many in the field, and it's just one of the reasons we've enlisted him to share community management best practices to help Ning Creators (and anyone else) refine their approach and cultivate thriving communities. Richard's next free talk is April 3rd at 9am PDT. We hope you can make it!</p>
<p>A recording of this webinar will be available on the Ning&#160;<a href="http://cultivate.ning.com/ning-blog/community+management+talks" target="_self"><font color="#75AF2D">Community Management Talks</font></a>&#160;channel, and you can follow the conversation on Twitter using the hashtag #NingTalk.</p>
</div>Open and Closed Questionshttp://cultivate.ning.com/xn/detail/6618825:BlogEntry:102462014-04-29T16:54:28.000ZRichard Millingtonhttp://cultivate.ning.com/community/RichardMillington<div><img src="http://api.ning.com/files/LoK3NXOIwpFmhkzx78sr1mt0VdBXOTc7yhHwF7XwRHim7feaS*s-TQdOn86f6HrPUkwLJvNYvpoArfwyZcY8EpPyz6NbNPg5/openandclosedquestions.png?width=400"></div><div><p>You usually get a bigger response by asking closed questions. </p><p>It's easy to answer a specific, closed, question. Do you think that {x} is better than {y}?How many times have you {x}? </p><p>Open-ended questions require you to think. They require you to risk having entirely the wrong answer. They require more time and mental effort. That can be off-putting. </p><p>It's often better to ask a few closed questions that people can answer to build their confidence before asking open questions. </p><p>Think about this when you're stimulating discussions in your community.</p><p>Think about it in your profile questions too. Do you want to ask broad, generic, questions and solicit a personal biography? Or do you want a few specific, closed, answers to help people get started? </p><p>So if you're struggling to get much of a response asking open-ended questions, try asking closed questions for a while instead. </p></div>Guest Post: How Threadless, The Huffington Post and Fitocracy understand the business value of communityhttp://cultivate.ning.com/xn/detail/6618825:BlogEntry:99172014-04-23T21:00:00.000ZSarah Judd Welchhttp://cultivate.ning.com/community/sarahjuddwelch<div><img src="http://api.ning.com/files/SPs2IsiC3PJpOX8dlv0bc54SSbZp7x-jalWgQCdO2vHnJp4LlL5Y*6ktLoSlXzvf1o6WNLUfvWKuQGxEyGjtvR6NUUY7E9Qk/2402908982_c3ae777afc_b.jpg?width=400"></div><div><p class="p1"><em>This post originally appeared on <a rel="nofollow" href="http://blog.thefetch.com/2014/01/14/how-threadless-the-huffington-post-and-fitocracy-understand-the-business-value-of-community/" target="_blank">The Fetch Blog</a>&#160;as a Guest Post from Loyal.&#160;</em></p>
<p><em>Loyal is a Community Development Studio. Process-driven and people-centric, they develop bespoke solutions for each of their clients. They've worked on community with a variety of organizations from Fortune 100s and international brands to seed stage startups and politicians. For more information, visit&#160;<a rel="nofollow" href="http://loyal.is" target="_blank">http://loyal.is</a></em></p>
<hr />
<p>Over the past few years, I’ve seen and felt first hand the skepticism of business leaders and traditional marketing folks around the financial return on investing in community initiatives. While it used to be that most of the evidence was anecdotal, today there are quite a few examples of community efforts moving the bottom line among the biggest and smallest of brands.</p>
<p>Let’s keep in mind the goals of community when talking about return: connect people to each other, make them happy, and make them stay (retention). All three of these goals strongly correlate with brand loyalty, referrals, and engagement metrics. With these in mind, consider the following statistics:</p>
<ul>
<li>It costs 80% less to retain a customer than to acquire a new one</li>
<li>Increasing customer retention rate by 5% can increase profits by up to 95% over the long-term (<a href="http://hbswk.hbs.edu/archive/1590.html" target="_blank">HBS</a>)</li>
<li>Increased engagement on community sites can result in up to 25% increase in revenue (<a href="http://www.msi.org/reports/social-dollars-the-economic-impact-of-customer-participation-in-a-firm-spon/" target="_blank">MSI</a>)</li>
<li>Friend recommendations are the number one influencing factor in purchase decisions (<a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/1118336038" target="_blank">Brand Advocates</a>)</li>
</ul>
<p><img src="http://api.ning.com:80/files/SPs2IsiC3PK4**TF7TCpGtlv4KducpYmPOz3W6ALk-fwa5FxQPfMT95VAqXjdA-2fvsrGPRUEh0aHDgcVVhhDvGgoFw1L-JX/threadless.png" width="313" class="align-center" /></p>
<p>Image source: Threadless.com</p>
<p>Although these stats are impressive, nothing demonstrates a point quite like real-life examples. Take <a href="http://www.threadless.com/" target="_blank">Threadless</a>&#160;– a creative community created by <a href="http://www.skinnycorp.com/" target="_blank">skinnyCorp</a>&#160;that makes, supports, and buys great art – the perfect model of crowdsourcing and customer community success. At Threadless, e-commerce and community intersect; members submit designs (originally t-shirts, and <a href="http://www.threadless.com/otherstuff" target="_blank">now other stuff</a>) that fellow members can purchase. Founded in 2000 with just $1000, the community has now grown to 2.5 million members globally with more than 500,000 designs submitted and nearly 5000 designs printed. Together, Threadless members have helped raise nearly $8.8 million for more than 1200 artists worldwide. How’s that for ROI on community?</p>
<p>Likewise, <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/" target="_blank">The Huffington Post</a>, arguably the largest actively managed community on the internet, also benefits as a media company from strong community investment. HuffPo leverages its commenter community to distribute content and drive new and returning visits to the site with roughly 9.5 million pre-moderated comments per month. As a content trendsetter, the media powerhouse has sought to ensure a safe place for people to comment, <a href="http://blog.aol.com/2012/03/01/talking-community-with-justin-isaf-huffington-post-community-ma/" target="_blank">according to its previous Director of Community, Justin Isaf</a>. While the company does use an algorithm to help moderate spammy or inappropriate comments, the community is largely self-policed, reducing the need for headcount on HuffPo’s community moderation team. Partially as a result of its community, HuffPo sees 70M unique visitors and 1.1B pageviews in the US. alone. The results are clear: community engagement and distribution means more site views and unique visitors, a major selling point for advertisers and content sponsors.</p>
<p>Like Threadless, <a href="https://www.fitocracy.com/" target="_blank">Fitocracy</a>&#160;is a community platform. The fitness gamification network is built around a community of people motivating each other to get healthy everyday. The network has grown from 300,000 to more than 1.5 million users since it launched out of beta in March 2012 and has <a href="http://techcrunch.com/2013/03/26/fitocracys-1m-users-including-arnold-schwarzenegger-are-more-engaged-than-any-other-social-network-besides-facebook/" target="_blank">more user engagement than Twitter</a>. According to founder Dick Talens, users come back to the app seven days a week even if they’re not working out – just because they’re so engrossed in the community. The app has also found a new way to monetize community with group fitness plans built around two of the most valuable benefits of any community – accountability and support among members. Aiming to replace the typical “gym trainer model,” the group fitness plans assign small groups of Fitocracy community members to one trainer for a fraction of what training would cost at a gym (plans are $50-77/month). The groups are held accountable to report their progress to the trainer and to each other through communication systems such as Google Hangouts and Q&amp;As. Fitocracy has effectively monetized their community itself.</p>
<p>These examples show that community really can have a significant (and positive) impact on your bottom line, whether it’s through retention, increased engagement, referrals, or a revenue stream built around fulfilling the needs of an existing community. You’re most likely already interacting with your users, and many of them are likely already interacting with each other. Challenge yourself to reorganize the structure of these touch points to form a community that will contribute to your bottom line. Are you leveraging the value of community?</p>
<p>Lead image:&#160;<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/wetwebwork/2402908982/in/photostream/" target="_blank">via wetwebwork on flickr</a></p>
<hr />
<p class="p1"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><strong>About the Author:</strong></span></p>
<p class="p1">Sarah Judd Welch is the Founder // Head of Community Design + BD at <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.loyal.is/"><span class="s1">Loyal</span></a> where she designs communities for startups, brands, and Fortune 100s. Find her on Twitter at <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.twitter.com/sjw"><span class="s1">@sjw</span></a>.</p>
<p class="p1">Read more stories like this one at&#160;<a rel="nofollow" href="http://loyal.is/">http://loyal.is</a>.</p>
</div>Guest Post: How We Measure Content for Community Successhttp://cultivate.ning.com/xn/detail/6618825:BlogEntry:117312014-04-08T18:01:40.000ZShannon Byrnehttp://cultivate.ning.com/community/ShannonByrne<div><p class="p1"><em>This post originally appeared on <a rel="nofollow" href="http://loyal.is/measuring-content-success/" target="_blank">Loyal's blog</a>.&#160;</em></p>
<p><em>Loyal is a Community Development Studio. Process-driven and people-centric, they develop bespoke solutions for each of their clients. They've worked on community with a variety of organizations from Fortune 100s and international brands to seed stage startups and politicians. For more information, visit&#160;<a rel="nofollow" href="http://loyal.is" target="_blank">http://loyal.is</a></em></p>
<hr />
<p dir="ltr">If you’ve been following Loyal for a while, you may have noticed that we’ve recently put a considerable amount of attention towards our content, and we’re seeing great results. Most importantly, we’ve seen increased engagement and interactions with members of our community — results tied directly to our goals and values as a company, as we put people at the center of our work. We believe that healthy communities consist of networks of relationships and that content is simply a tool, a vehicle by which to deepen these relationships for&#160;<a rel="nofollow" href="http://loyal.is/measuring-community/" target="_blank">community success</a>.</p>
<p dir="ltr"><span>Before diving in, you should check out “</span><a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.fastcompany.com/3024786/dialed/the-ultimate-guide-to-google-analytics" target="_blank">The Ultimate Guide to Google Analytics</a><span>” by Belle Beth Cooper (formerly of Buffer) on Fast Company. It’s a helpful guide for analyzing Google Analytics’ most important metrics, walking through a process very similar to our own.&#160;<em>Also, we should mention that much of our growth is due to the redesign of our site in mid-January.&#160;</em></span></p>
<h2 dir="ltr"><strong>Where to Start</strong></h2>
<p dir="ltr">We always start every endeavor by defining its goals and assessing how they align with our overall business objectives, then breaking them into short-term wins and long-term gains. Beyond seeking to deepen our relationships, our other goals are to: establish ourselves as thought leaders on community design, get in front of brands, and educate our community and a broader audience on the power of designing and leveraging community for business growth. We do this through our blog content, weekly newsletter, curated social content, guest posts, and IRL interactions. For the sake of simplicity, we’ll focus on blog and social content for this post.</p>
<h3 dir="ltr">Visits</h3>
<p dir="ltr">At Loyal, when reporting on the success of our content, we start with the high-level metric of visits and unique visits. Although visits are not the most important metric, they’re a good determinant of the health of our content and site. We then look at the&#160;<strong>percentage of new visits</strong>&#160;to determine if our content is bringing people back (this is very important to us) and if we’re successfully growing our audience. In January, we saw a 171% increase in visits, and a&#160;<em><strong>176% increase in unique visits</strong></em>!</p>
<h3 dir="ltr">Bounce Rates</h3>
<p dir="ltr">We do look at bounce rates, but they’re not as critical for us as they would be for an e-commerce company, for example, because although we hope new visitors contact us to learn more, we’re not selling a product on our site. We know that our visitors often come to our site to read a blog post or two, maybe comment, sign up for our newsletter, or contact us, then leave. As long as they interact with the content in some way, we’re happy.</p>
<h3 dir="ltr">Pages Per Visit + Time on Site</h3>
<p dir="ltr">We take a look at pages per visit to determine if visitors are interested enough to click through to other pages from the one they landed on. We also consider the percentage of new visits — it’s one thing if returning visitors are only reading one story, it’s more concerning if new visitors aren’t clicking through. In January, we saw a&#160;<strong>38% increase in pages/visit</strong>from the month prior for an average of 2.3 pages.</p>
<p dir="ltr">Time spent on the site helps determine the level of interest, as well as whether visitors are just skimming or spending a significant amount of time consuming the content. Our average time spent on the site was&#160;<strong>up 23 seconds</strong>&#160;in January, with an all-time high of 6:15 the first half of the month due to our new site and blog launch mid-month.</p>
<p><br class="Apple-interchange-newline" />
<img src="http://api.ning.com/files/-mTQ4UXPt9kOtYFbuyndx5Cu3hCgjTQUHEDAzoNpAsT-MANjXeuEvZxupsNQFQKJlyTbBGqGq69QQ2fr*f8uu-6Ug7POA94M/2915science110002513310182013.png?width=750" width="750" class="align-center" /></p>
<h3 dir="ltr">Pageviews and Specific Content Drilldown</h3>
<p dir="ltr">Pageviews help determine the success of our content in terms of the number of pages visitors are reading and how many times they’re coming back to the site. We saw a<strong>&#160;247% increase in pageviews</strong>&#160;in January, also due to our site overhaul.</p>
<p dir="ltr"><em><strong>The most important piece of information when analyzing our analytics is what specific content is driving traffic to the site.</strong>&#160;</em>That is, what’s grabbing the audience’s attention and keeping them there — what they’re finding interesting or of value. In Google Analytics, you can see this by looking at&#160;<strong>Behavior -&gt; Site Content -&gt; All Pages</strong>&#160;and sort by Unique Pageviews (highest to lowest). From there, you can also see how many people entered the site from specific pages, how much time they spent on it, which pages they left the site from, and what the bounce rate was.</p>
<p dir="ltr">By looking at which posts perform best, we can identify trends in our content that are attracting an audience. O<span>ur posts that have performed best, in order of popularity are:</span></p>
<ul>
<li><a rel="nofollow" href="http://loyal.is/loyals-new-look/" target="_blank">http://loyal.is/loyals-new-look/</a></li>
<li><a rel="nofollow" href="http://loyal.is/measuring-community/">http://loyal.is/measuring-community/</a></li>
<li><a rel="nofollow" href="http://loyal.is/community-process/" target="_blank">http://loyal.is/community-process/</a></li>
<li><a rel="nofollow" href="http://loyal.is/history-of-community/" target="_blank">http://loyal.is/history-of-community/</a></li>
<li><a rel="nofollow" href="http://loyal.is/productivity-tips-for-community-people/" target="_blank">http://loyal.is/productivity-tips-for-community-people/</a></li>
</ul>
<p>Our site is a little too fresh or new to gleam too much from this, considering how these are our most recent posts. However, we have noticed that our audience is interested in actionable take-aways and quantitative anecdotes. We will continue to keep an eye on which of our content performs best moving forward.</p>
<h3 dir="ltr">Site Referrers</h3>
<p dir="ltr">It’s crucial for us to know where our visitors are coming from so that we allocate our time and resources wisely. By looking at referrers, we can discover where our audience is and what calls to action are successfully attracting them to the site. In Google Analytics, you can see this by selecting<strong>&#160;Acquisition -&gt; All Referrals</strong>. There, you’ll see the number of visits from each referring site, as well as how many were new visits. You can click on each referrer to see which links they drove traffic to on which days. You can then go back and see which Tweets, for example, generated the clicks.</p>
<p>In January, our top referrers with percentage of unique visits were:</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>Twitter:</strong>&#160;14%</li>
<li><strong>New Site Announcement (via Mailchimp):</strong>&#160;11%</li>
<li><strong>Loyal.cx (direct)</strong>: 9%</li>
<li><strong>Facebook:</strong>&#160;6%</li>
<li><strong>Google:</strong>&#160;5.4%</li>
<li><strong>Newsletter:</strong>&#160;5.4%</li>
<li><strong>SarahJuddWelch.com:</strong>&#160;5%</li>
<li><strong>TheCommunityManager.com:</strong>&#160;4.5%</li>
<li><strong>Lighthouse.io:</strong>&#160;3%</li>
<li><strong>loyalcx.tumblr.com:</strong>&#160;2.6%</li>
<li><strong>Tumblr.com:</strong>&#160;3%</li>
<li><strong>The Fetch:</strong>&#160;1.8%</li>
</ul>
<p dir="ltr">As you can see, our visits are widely distributed with the majority of referrals coming from Twitter and our email marketing campaigns. We should note that this does not take into account business leads and one-off inbound emails. We also only recently began contributing to other blogs and publications. Those sites being in our top ten referrers confirms that this is an activity that we should continue with. Also, we do not have a company Facebook page&#160;<em>(because we feel it won’t be as valuable for brands in the future)</em>, so it seems that our personal networks play a significant role in attracting visitors.</p>
<h2 dir="ltr"><strong>What All This Means</strong></h2>
<p dir="ltr">All of this data helps paint a story for us — a story about our community, our content, and our distribution strategy. By taking all the above information into consideration, we’re able to determine that our new site and blog with original content are successfully attracting new and returning visitors. We know that Twitter is our most successful distribution channel, our personal networks and relationships are high-value, and that we should continue to guest post. We know that there is a significant opportunity to grow these numbers and strengthen our community.</p>
<p dir="ltr"><em>We tend to nerd out over learning more about our community and look forward to seeing what content does and does not resonate with all of you!</em></p>
<hr />
<p class="p1"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><strong>About the Author:</strong></span></p>
<p class="p1">Shannon Byrne is the Content Manager + Community Associate at <a rel="nofollow" href="http://loyal.is/">Loyal</a>, where she crafts words and creates community-driven strategies. Florida native turned Brooklynite, she has a passion for writing and a knack for connecting people. Follow her on Twitter <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.twitter.com/shannnonb">@ShannnonB</a>.</p>
<p class="p1">Read more stories like this one at&#160;<a rel="nofollow" href="http://loyal.is/">http://loyal.is</a>.</p>
<p class="p1"><em>Image via GraphicStock</em></p>
</div>Richard Millington Answers Your Community Questions [Video]http://cultivate.ning.com/xn/detail/6618825:BlogEntry:116502014-04-05T00:05:29.000ZCrystalhttp://cultivate.ning.com/community/CrystalC<div><img src="http://api.ning.com/files/sNGui7dfNNZb8dYwxNCW6WsYi7o6AJK81aSuiZNN8D4R8gp4FusxgiRhyOns1tsFwAOrLFP8UtUBg6syG4Z3c0PfN0550PCY/QA_ningtalk_webinar_cover_040314copy.png?width=400"></div><div><p>On Thursday, Richard Millington joined us for an hour devoted to answering your community questions. We got through a dozen questions during the hour, which you can watch or re-watch below:&#160;</p>
<p><iframe width="500" height="281" src="http://player.vimeo.com/video/90915534" frameborder="0" webkitallowfullscreen="" mozallowfullscreen="" allowfullscreen=""></iframe></p>
<p>Some of the topics we covered:&#160;</p>
<p><strong>How do I attract visitors and retain them as dedicated members?&#160;</strong></p>
<p>One thing Richard highly recommends is that you know your target audience and have established connections within this audience before your start your community. This pre-existing relationship helps with word of mouth tactics that provide the best referrals to your community. On the retention side, Richard's previous webinar on <a href="http://cultivate.ning.com/ning-blog/converting-newcomers-into-active-community-members?context=category-community+management+talks" target="_self">Converting Newcomers into Active Community Members</a>&#160;is a great listen on this topic.&#160;</p>
<p><strong>How do you start to pick a community platform?</strong></p>
<p>Rich gave us some insight into the Feverbee process of <a href="http://www.feverbee.com/2014/03/briefguide.html" target="_blank">selecting a platform for a client</a>. Their process looks first at the budget, skills, and resources available, then looking at the potential longevity of the platform. Next, they look at other successful examples of the platform and then features and negotiation.&#160;</p>
<p>We also recently released an exclusive white paper from F. Randall Farmer titled "<a href="http://cultivate.ning.com/ning-blog/platform-selection-white-paper" target="_self">Five Questions for Selecting an Online Community Platform</a>" for those who want to delve deeper into this topic.&#160;</p>
<p><strong>How often should Admins send out email blasts?&#160;</strong></p>
<p>Richard's noticed that regularly scheduled messages often get overlooked. At Feverbee, they've been experimenting with sending irregularly timed messages and <a href="http://www.feverbee.com/2014/03/frequency-open-rates-and-action.html" target="_blank">wrote about their findings</a>&#160;recently.&#160;</p>
<p>One topic we got a lot of questions about was migration from Ning 2.0 to Ning 3.0. We'll be putting out more articles on breaking change in the coming weeks, and keep an eye on the <a href="http://creators.ning.com" target="_blank">Creators community</a>&#160;for us to schedule a dedicated webinar on this topic soon!&#160;</p>
<p></p>
<p></p>
</div>Getting Started with a Community Roadmap for the Entire Teamhttp://cultivate.ning.com/xn/detail/6618825:BlogEntry:115622014-04-03T23:45:50.000ZSarah Judd Welchhttp://cultivate.ning.com/community/sarahjuddwelch<div><p dir="ltr">As community managers <a rel="nofollow" href="http://blog.percolate.com/2013/07/from-community-manager-to-cmo/">rise in the ranks</a>, we're often tasked with strategic planning for our entire team. This is our opportunity to align the greater organization around community goals while demonstrating how community initiatives reinforce business goals.</p><p>Where to start? Before getting overwhelmed with the large task at hand, take a step back. You have so many more resources at your disposal than you likely realize.</p><h3>1. Clear Purpose</h3><p>What is your community meant to accomplish? Community’s purposes vary from company to company: to provide support, to provide knowledge or resources, to reinforce values, etc. Defining your purpose upfront, particularly in relationship with your organization’s vision helps with the next step -- setting goals.</p><h3>2. Actionable, Measurable Goals<a href="http://api.ning.com:80/files/cPakA0chAEyb7Bc8tGNIOFJm4wG7Vzu08y*8zd27*-MXQ1sTRhFwzQKDuWgH2RF2pLzdxcdNuc5oS48nkow4ywr5k*Qslurx/ScreenShot20140403at4.43.26PM.png" target="_self"><img src="http://api.ning.com:80/files/cPakA0chAEyb7Bc8tGNIOFJm4wG7Vzu08y*8zd27*-MXQ1sTRhFwzQKDuWgH2RF2pLzdxcdNuc5oS48nkow4ywr5k*Qslurx/ScreenShot20140403at4.43.26PM.png?width=400" width="400" class="align-right"/></a></h3><p>With your purpose in mind, what can you accomplish this year that will further that aim? Perhaps it’s a support center or a community forum. Maybe it’s an education program or a content series. Or, maybe it’s a set of community features. And then, what are the metrics that would indicate success for each initiative? Consider this both in terms of the initiative itself as well as within the context of greater business goals, such as increase in sales, etc.</p><p>Whatever it is, map it out according to specific time periods. Often, it’s helpful outline these goals according to the fiscal year: Q1, Q2, Q3, Q4. Be sure to be realistic as to what can be accomplished within a given period of time. Examples include:</p><ul><li dir="ltr"><p dir="ltr"><span>Increase community referrals by 20% by end of Q2</span></p></li><li dir="ltr"><p dir="ltr"><span>Decrease churn by 15% in Q1</span></p></li><li dir="ltr"><p dir="ltr"><span>Increase monthly sign-ups as a direct result of community efforts by 10% in Q1</span></p></li></ul><h3>3. Company Alignment</h3><p>You might be in charge of community for your company, but community is everyone’s job. Truly effective community roadmaps include the entire team. Make sure that you’re able to articulate to each team (marketing, development, account management, sales, etc.) how your roadmap supports their own team’s objectives and larger company goals.</p><p>This makes asking for help much easier -- surely you’re not going to build and design that community forum yourself! When creating your roadmap, be very clear on what resources you have at your disposal, what you’ll need from other teams, and what you’ll need to provide to other teams. Will you need help from design and development? What about marketing or operations? How will your roadmap impact BD or support?</p><p>After you’ve determined purpose, set goals, and have ensured that your roadmap aligns with company goals, you’re ready to break these down into tactics. Make your tactics specific and have a <a rel="nofollow" href="http://loyal.is/community-process/">clear process</a> in place for assigning them to their relevant team member. The more clear you can be when setting expectations and responsibilities, the better. If you’d like more information on how to dive into tactics and execution, feel free to <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.twitter.com/sjw">reach out</a>, I’d love to chat.</p><hr/><p dir="ltr"><span><strong>About the Author:</strong></span></p><p dir="ltr"><span>Sarah Judd Welch is the Founder // Head of Community Design + BD at</span> <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.loyal.is/">Loyal</a> <span>where she designs communities for startups, brands, and Fortune 100s. Find her on Twitter at </span><a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.twitter.com/sjw">@sjw</a><span>.</span></p><p><span>Read more stories like this one at <a rel="nofollow" href="http://loyal.is/">http://loyal.is</a>.</span></p><p> </p></div>Guest Post: The Art of Gathering Feedback from Your Community (and putting it to good use)http://cultivate.ning.com/xn/detail/6618825:BlogEntry:116402014-04-03T23:20:00.000ZShannon Byrnehttp://cultivate.ning.com/community/ShannonByrne<div><p class="p1"><em>This post originally appeared on <a rel="nofollow" href="http://loyal.is/gathering-feedback/" target="_blank">Loyal's blog</a>. </em></p><p><em>Loyal is a Community Development Studio. Process-driven and people-centric, they develop bespoke solutions for each of their clients. They've worked on community with a variety of organizations from Fortune 100s and international brands to seed stage startups and politicians. For more information, visit <a rel="nofollow" href="http://loyal.is" target="_blank">http://loyal.is</a></em></p><hr/><p dir="ltr">At Loyal, feedback from our community — clients, colleagues, partners, friends, and even sometimes family — is invaluable. In fact, feedback is one of the <a rel="nofollow" href="http://loyal.is/community-will-help-you-get-more-done/" target="_blank">leading benefits of having a community</a>. It leads to product and service improvements, open channels of communication, customer insight, and sometimes, new product ideas.</p><p dir="ltr">Feedback can be used to improve minor elements of a larger strategy as well. When I first started at Loyal, I began emailing all of our <a rel="nofollow" href="http://us6.campaign-archive1.com/?u=46007b114fa24838e7fdfe9dd&amp;id=7613d4d592&amp;e=b016cdf2a8" target="_blank">newsletter</a> subscribers asking for feedback — what they liked, didn’t like, what they would like to see in future issues, etc. I purposely kept it very casual and open ended, as my primary goal was to introduce myself and get to know a community that I was very new to. The secondary goal was to gather feedback to improve the newsletter. Looking back, I wish I asked for more specific feedback from certain people — design advice from designers, insight on our content from community managers, etc. Having said that, the experience and insight gathered was extremely helpful in improving our newsletter for subscribers, and although we were asking about the newsletter specifically, we were able to apply much of the feedback received to other areas of our larger content strategy.</p><p dir="ltr">One thing we heard over and over again was that our subscribers wanted to read about our own opinions and insight on community-related issues. In response, we started producing more <a rel="nofollow" href="http://loyal.is/blog/" target="_blank">original content</a> based on our expertise and experience and added a related reading section at the end to house this content in the newsletter. These pieces continue to see the majority of click-throughs to this day.</p><p dir="ltr"><a href="http://api.ning.com:80/files/v8L-Z4Kt2zfX6kDNGZsWAIOEWUq-k4UXstz0lglNeXMuXMrLb-oqNBjMSDvAOgfz4P*yBQViCUQXhMYlFRwzLlQeDEB*4GV*/GatheringFeedback1.png" target="_self"><img src="http://api.ning.com:80/files/v8L-Z4Kt2zfX6kDNGZsWAIOEWUq-k4UXstz0lglNeXMuXMrLb-oqNBjMSDvAOgfz4P*yBQViCUQXhMYlFRwzLlQeDEB*4GV*/GatheringFeedback1.png" width="523" class="align-center"/></a></p><p dir="ltr">We also heard that our images were a little feminine for our male audience. Our brand by nature (and by design) is very feminine and romantic, but that doesn’t mean we can’t include more gender-neutral images, which we’ve worked to do.</p><p dir="ltr"><a href="http://api.ning.com:80/files/v8L-Z4Kt2zfUuoXxx6RFzgeLdEwXlA89YbTIhXjDFYkyj4UDl1eyNpOzEJwG43wgN6WwDYrEX4JqSfOVrOfql71*UKJN52tf/GatheringFeedback2.png" target="_self"><img src="http://api.ning.com:80/files/v8L-Z4Kt2zfUuoXxx6RFzgeLdEwXlA89YbTIhXjDFYkyj4UDl1eyNpOzEJwG43wgN6WwDYrEX4JqSfOVrOfql71*UKJN52tf/GatheringFeedback2.png" width="515" class="align-center"/></a></p><p dir="ltr"><a href="http://api.ning.com:80/files/v8L-Z4Kt2zc*UBhiinm8jb9tJ8Grz3bZnXy6RRjl52suLtRwBBPXlEblRT8cpcqohts2oyyGTMPZ2dDjuXbaRt9YRJ7itQvA/GatheringFeedback3.png" target="_self"><img src="http://api.ning.com:80/files/v8L-Z4Kt2zc*UBhiinm8jb9tJ8Grz3bZnXy6RRjl52suLtRwBBPXlEblRT8cpcqohts2oyyGTMPZ2dDjuXbaRt9YRJ7itQvA/GatheringFeedback3.png" width="513" class="align-center"/></a></p><p dir="ltr">Readers wanted more quantitative and metric-specific content, as well as case studies. We’ve included more of these stories in our curated content and have made a significant effort to produce original pieces on <a rel="nofollow" href="http://fullstart.com/knowledge/roi-community/" target="_blank">how to measure</a> the<a rel="nofollow" href="http://loyal.is/the-business-value-of-community/" target="_blank">business value of community</a>, and all its subsequent <a rel="nofollow" href="http://loyal.is/measuring-community/" target="_blank">activities</a> and <a rel="nofollow" href="http://loyal.is/measuring-content-success/" target="_blank">tools</a>, as well as our own <a rel="nofollow" href="http://loyal.is/community-process/" target="_blank">process-focused approach</a> to community.</p><p dir="ltr">Additionally, we heard that people <em><strong>loved</strong></em> our short-mid-long format for curated content and how we tie each story together into one theme, but they wanted more concrete summaries of each beyond the context we provided. We’ve also worked to make this change, while keeping each piece short and easy to digest.</p><p dir="ltr">After <a rel="nofollow" href="http://loyal.is/loyals-new-look/" target="_blank">rebranding our newsletter</a> from CX at Heart to <strong><a rel="nofollow" href="http://community.is/" target="_blank">Community.is</a></strong> in January, we asked for feedback again — mostly around what our readers thought of the new look, as the content and format didn’t change much. Remember, communication is a two-way street. By communicating the why behind the change and what it meant for our readers, we opened the channels for honest and constructive feedback, which resulted in a ton of positive remarks as well as some really great constructive advice.</p><h3 dir="ltr" style="text-align: center;">Before</h3><p><a href="http://api.ning.com:80/files/v8L-Z4Kt2zeY3JnlDJ8XkY0-2MdpbyHAzAtdfVbqgPBvJu5B4AUZBOrsStkmwVbw8Si2L8m1S7y0dbNHbMFIDD-GQLq-Czi0/GatheringFeedback4.png" target="_self"><img src="http://api.ning.com:80/files/v8L-Z4Kt2zeY3JnlDJ8XkY0-2MdpbyHAzAtdfVbqgPBvJu5B4AUZBOrsStkmwVbw8Si2L8m1S7y0dbNHbMFIDD-GQLq-Czi0/GatheringFeedback4.png" width="529" class="align-center"/></a></p><h3 dir="ltr" style="text-align: center;">After</h3><p><a href="http://api.ning.com:80/files/v8L-Z4Kt2zeifE39cBmKmE5pQAwg6vunW09c0yqXzHia00hg-SIflActkXeBZYy1CSMLcgskBsagSFSDS984mO62PavHfYIw/GatheringFeedback5.png" target="_self"><img src="http://api.ning.com:80/files/v8L-Z4Kt2zeifE39cBmKmE5pQAwg6vunW09c0yqXzHia00hg-SIflActkXeBZYy1CSMLcgskBsagSFSDS984mO62PavHfYIw/GatheringFeedback5.png" width="527" class="align-center"/></a></p><p dir="ltr">One minor piece of feedback we received was to include more specific calls to action at the end of each issue. I really liked this idea and tested it continuously for a while, but it did not prompt any action. It’s possible that our calls to action were not strong enough to get readers to hit reply with their thoughts. We’ve put a hold on the specific CTAs for now, but will likely brainstorm how we can improve them to spur more action and start including them again later, which brings me to one very big point…</p><h2 dir="ltr">Don’t forget to test</h2><p dir="ltr">There’s a very important step, or steps rather, between gathering feedback and executing for iteration and improvement. You must first filter, qualify, and organize feedback from your community, then you test. Whether you’re gathering feedback in bulk (like I initially did) or piecemeal (like I do now), you should read through every single communication received. From some of these, you’ll be able to <strong>pull out quick wins</strong>, the advice that makes you say “why didn’t I think of that?” and takes 15-30 minutes max to change. Execute these right away, you’ll feel good about your day.</p><p dir="ltr">Beyond these quick wins, it’s important to <strong>notice patterns</strong>. Highlight one specific statement (and versions there of) that keeps popping out. In our case, it was that our readers wanted our opinions and case studies from Loyal included in the newsletter. I should mention that acting on this feedback has had <strong>many other benefits</strong>, including greater brand awareness, new fans and followers (measured by people paying attention to us on a regular basis, not by Twitter count), and even leads.</p><p dir="ltr"><strong>Start testing</strong>. Test both the big things that the majority of your community asked for and the one-offs, assuming that they’re reasonable. If someone told us that Loyal should start including stories on how to build bookshelves, we probably wouldn’t do that just please that one person because Loyal is in the business of building community, not bookshelves. However, we would include more actionable tips and take-aways on how to build and grow a community, if that was a request. After implementing a change, go back and ask those who suggested it for their thoughts, if they’re pleased, and if it’s what they were actually looking for. Never be afraid to ask someone to elaborate.</p><h2 dir="ltr">Keep it continuous</h2><p dir="ltr">Yes, I initially sent a large batch of emails to the entire subscriber-base when I first started with Loyal, but the results were so helpful that I’ve now built it into my workflow. I send an email to every new subscriber, asking them for thoughts and feedback as they continue to receive weekly issues. Not only has this resulted in a continuous source of fresh feedback and new perspectives, it also provides me with inspiration and motivation, as most of our subscribers have very positive things to say about Loyal, the newsletter, and all of our content. Although it’s the constructive criticism that I seek in order to improve our work, it’s a pretty awesome added benefit to hear how much people like what we’re doing. <img src="http://loyal.is/wp-includes/images/smilies/icon_smile.gif" alt=":)" class="wp-smiley"/></p><p dir="ltr"><em><strong>In the spirit of collecting feedback, I’d love to know if you found this post helpful. Please leave your thoughts in the comments below or on the original post at the <a rel="nofollow" href="http://loyal.is/gathering-feedback/" target="_blank">Loyal Blog</a>!</strong></em></p><hr/><p class="p1"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><strong>About the Author:</strong></span></p><p class="p1">Shannon Byrne is the Content Manager + Community Associate at <a rel="nofollow" href="http://loyal.is/">Loyal</a>, where she crafts words and creates community-driven strategies. Florida native turned Brooklynite, she has a passion for writing and a knack for connecting people. Follow her on Twitter <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.twitter.com/shannnonb">@ShannnonB</a>.</p><p class="p1">Read more stories like this one at <a rel="nofollow" href="http://loyal.is/">http://loyal.is</a>.</p></div>The Problem With Community Platforms (and asking the right questions)http://cultivate.ning.com/xn/detail/6618825:BlogEntry:100712014-03-27T15:00:00.000ZRichard Millingtonhttp://cultivate.ning.com/community/RichardMillington<div><p><b><a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.discourse.org/">Discourse</a></b> looks interesting. It looks sleek, modern, and displays most of what people need. It's also open-source. It might be a fantastic new community platform. </p><p>It's going to tempt a lot of people to switch platforms...and this is the problem.</p><p>Switching community platforms is one of the riskiest things you can do. The benefits are usually minimal and the dangers are colossal. Unless you picked a terrible platform initially, changing a platform won't help you much.</p><p>If you want a better community, it's rarely a new platform you need, it's a new and better approach to community management.</p><p>How are you <a href="http://cultivate.ning.com/ning-blog/concentrate-activity" target="_self">driving activity</a> and growth in that community? </p><p><a href="http://api.ning.com:80/files/v8L-Z4Kt2zdlcbGy00no34fN-zJ-fW6PZvVC42-r7yGc1jhkk4Q*GZ0rLAibMnoCRK3RlJeMG*y6RIz9yrnw5s1lTXUoOns6/questionicon_27582green.png" target="_self"><img src="http://api.ning.com:80/files/v8L-Z4Kt2zdlcbGy00no34fN-zJ-fW6PZvVC42-r7yGc1jhkk4Q*GZ0rLAibMnoCRK3RlJeMG*y6RIz9yrnw5s1lTXUoOns6/questionicon_27582green.png" width="539" class="align-center"/></a></p><p>What are you doing to recruit members? Whom are you approaching? What are you telling them? What is their reaction? What tactics have you tried/not tried? How are you encouraging them to invite others?</p><p>How are you initiating and sustaining discussions? What topics have you tried? <a href="http://cultivate.ning.com/ning-blog/how-to-help-members-overcome-their-fear-of-participation" target="_self">Who and how are you prompting people</a> to respond to these topics? What types of discussions work best? What does your audience analysis tell you will be most interesting?</p><p>What <a href="http://cultivate.ning.com/ning-blog/14-events-you-can-organize-and-celebrate-in-your-community" target="_blank">events are you facilitating</a>? Have you scheduled regular, live, events? Are you reaching out to and inviting the top people in your community and sector to participate in these events? </p><p>Are you <a href="http://cultivate.ning.com/ning-blog/the-psychological-impact-of-interactions" target="_self">building relationships</a> with members? How are you building these relationships? What is working/not working here? </p><p>Have you diagnosed your community? What specifically does your data tell you is going wrong? Is it growth, activity, or <a href="http://cultivate.ning.com/ning-blog/creating-a-sense-of-belonging-in-your-online-community" target="_self">sense of community</a>? </p><p>Are you embracing the <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.feverbee.com/2012/09/community-management-framework.html">full community management framework</a>? Or are you just doing a tiny sliver of the work you should be doing. </p><p>Too often, we jump straight to the conclusion that the platform is the problem. That's rarely the case. It's almost certainly the activity you're doing on the platform that matters. </p><p>This is why new platforms have made it easier to build communities, but haven't helped us build <i>better</i> communities. </p><p>The answers to these questions are far more important than the platform or its features. </p></div>Upcoming Webinar: Richard Millington Answers Your Community Questionshttp://cultivate.ning.com/xn/detail/6618825:BlogEntry:103502014-03-21T22:37:15.000ZCrystalhttp://cultivate.ning.com/community/CrystalC<div><p><span class="font-size-3" data-mce-mark="1">On April 3rd, &#160;Richard Millington will host a free webinar&#160;<span class="font-size-3" data-mce-mark="1">answering your community questions he hasn't covered before. Want to learn more about how to pull the best content from your community, how to enlist volunteers, or how to develop your community strategy?&#160;</span></span></p>
<p></p>
<p class="p1">Richard has helped 100+ organizations develop successful communities. Clients like The United Nations, Novartis, Oracle, Greenpeace, Autodesk, and many more. <a href="https://www3.gotomeeting.com/register/745680646" target="_blank">Thursday, April 3rd at 9am PDT</a>he'll be here to help you. Take advantage of this unique opportunity, invite your colleagues, and come with questions!</p>
<p></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3" data-mce-mark="1">&#160;</span></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><span class="font-size-4"><strong>Thursday, April 3rd at 9am PDT</strong></span></p>
<p><a href="https://www3.gotomeeting.com/register/745680646" target="_blank"><img src="http://creators.ning.com/images/signupnow.png" class="align-center" /></a></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><span class="font-size-3">(find your&#160;<a href="http://everytimezone.com/#2014-4-3,240,6bj" target="_blank">local time here</a>)&#160;</span></p>
<p><strong>About the Presenter</strong></p>
<p><a href="http://api.ning.com/files/b5nNUCTifl2iwfZplOvJZvj5nHkm5jbufJl72GueCZgL5Y3MeOyuMKrSnxlC0Rv6nRQaj5kifs*j0iBm144*fTl8igZHqk9B/richard_millington_profile_photo_050813.jpg" target="_self"><img src="http://api.ning.com/files/b5nNUCTifl2iwfZplOvJZvj5nHkm5jbufJl72GueCZgL5Y3MeOyuMKrSnxlC0Rv6nRQaj5kifs*j0iBm144*fTl8igZHqk9B/richard_millington_profile_photo_050813.jpg?width=100" width="100" class="align-left" /></a>Richard Millington is the founder of FeverBee, a community consultancy, and author of the new book&#160;<a xt="SPCLICK" name="www_amazon_com_Buzzing_Communi" href="http://click.et.ning.com/?qs=560c57e3d19c1a56c67ddba1974f386d6fa9b833e60253373fa5865fd1a51365b08d12542be0bec1" id="www_amazon_com_Buzzing_Communi"><font color="#75AF2D">Buzzing Communities</font></a>. He&#160;is also a frequent guest blogger here on&#160;<a href="http://cultivate.ning.com/" target="_blank"><font color="#75AF2D">Cultivating Community</font></a>&#160;and our go-to presenter for the Community Management Talks series.&#160;His straightforward, results-oriented style is admired by many in the field, and it's just one of the reasons we've enlisted him to share community management best practices to help Ning Creators (and anyone else) refine their approach and cultivate thriving communities. Richard's next free talk is April 3rd at 9am PDT. We hope you can make it!</p>
<p>A recording of this webinar will be available on the Ning&#160;<a href="http://cultivate.ning.com/ning-blog/community+management+talks" target="_self"><font color="#75AF2D">Community Management Talks</font></a>&#160;channel, and you can follow the conversation on Twitter using the hashtag #NingTalk.</p>
</div>A Simple, Effective, Community Platform Designhttp://cultivate.ning.com/xn/detail/6618825:BlogEntry:102422014-03-20T16:00:00.000ZRichard Millingtonhttp://cultivate.ning.com/community/RichardMillington<div><p>Too many communities focus on content. They place the content at the top of the page and bury the community either beneath the fold or behind a community tab. This might look great, but it's not effective for building communities. </p><p><a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.plugincars.com/" target="_blank">Plugincars</a> is a notable exception. </p><p><a href="http://api.ning.com:80/files/v8L-Z4Kt2zcDNhIw6GcdF0nyrRwxYafEwMZNgEr5AmSaKg73JhNz6NArhMG0HDNe9D5SJI0o52y*3ZKQYAoMV6liQy-M*KIV/plugincars1.png" target="_self"><img src="http://api.ning.com:80/files/v8L-Z4Kt2zcDNhIw6GcdF0nyrRwxYafEwMZNgEr5AmSaKg73JhNz6NArhMG0HDNe9D5SJI0o52y*3ZKQYAoMV6liQy-M*KIV/plugincars1.png" width="500" class="align-full"/></a></p><p> This site balances the content, with the community, with the current activity. If they removed the advert in the top right, it would be perfect. </p><p>There are five things I want to highlight here:</p><p><b>1) The content appears on the landing page on a regular basis</b>. Members always have a reason to come back and visit the community to see what's new.</p><p><b>2) The community appear highly active</b>. They choose to show the number of discussions, photos, fans etc...this gives the impression of momentum. </p><p><b>3) The latest discussions also appear on the right of the page</b>. This shows the latest activity that members can immediately click to participate in. </p><p><b>4) The community balances the social needs with the need for information</b>. In addition to the landing page, members can see guides that they can download. </p><p><b>5) The community also seperately lists the one key thing that members want to know:</b> where can they charge their car? What is the one key, major, thing the members in your community want to know? </p><p>Also note that within the guides themselves they have guides for people that are <i>new to the topic</i> and for those looking to purchase cars. Most communities neglect the people that are new to the topic, yet it's these people that will be the biggest source of growth for most mature communities. </p><p><a href="http://api.ning.com:80/files/v8L-Z4Kt2zepL*LJ1gs1swXeRkGJiCPYLtjSz*dIBTkChQxsch8Fn4GftxSTRx-mfOfSK*roqL9wByGZFkrVj8mbWEUdDmA9/plugincars2.png" target="_self"><img src="http://api.ning.com:80/files/v8L-Z4Kt2zepL*LJ1gs1swXeRkGJiCPYLtjSz*dIBTkChQxsch8Fn4GftxSTRx-mfOfSK*roqL9wByGZFkrVj8mbWEUdDmA9/plugincars2.png" width="500" class="align-full"/></a></p><p>Plugincars also does a great job of highlighting the key contributors to the community. This is on the landing page of the community. </p><p><a href="http://api.ning.com:80/files/v8L-Z4Kt2zfTMBZG*t16IYRKvUumdovg7KIqc2BdSHCMlWRpvJD*fzhr4dV-Qc2y0Naun0Ut9t*wRQoqYxSL-GUDefs0Girb/plugincars3.png" target="_self"><img src="http://api.ning.com:80/files/v8L-Z4Kt2zfTMBZG*t16IYRKvUumdovg7KIqc2BdSHCMlWRpvJD*fzhr4dV-Qc2y0Naun0Ut9t*wRQoqYxSL-GUDefs0Girb/plugincars3.png" width="299" class="align-full"/></a></p><p> Finally in the <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.plugincars.com/cars">cars section</a> of the community, they give an instant overview of the topic. They provide a list of rechargable cars, upcoming cars, and the basic details of each car. This provides members with a glance of most of what they want to know about the topic.</p><p>If you're looking for what essential elements build a great community, <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.plugincars.com/">Plugincars</a> is a good place to start. </p></div>3 Reasons Why Community Needs a Process-Driven Approachhttp://cultivate.ning.com/xn/detail/6618825:BlogEntry:98832014-03-11T20:12:06.000ZSarah Judd Welchhttp://cultivate.ning.com/community/sarahjuddwelch<div><p dir="ltr"><span>While in the trenches of community management, it’s sometimes challenging to take a step back, evaluate your efforts and determine strategic next steps. Being heads down in our craft is certainly respectable, however, sometimes a step back and a fresh perspective is all that’s necessary to recognize a missed step, spot a new opportunity or take our work to the next level.</span></p><p dir="ltr"><span>While there are tons of tools for building community, there are simply no band-aid solutions that will magically create or grow a community overnight. That’s why community needs a</span> <a rel="nofollow" href="http://loyal.is/community-process/"><span>process-driven approach</span></a><span>. Specifically:</span></p><p dir="ltr"><span class="font-size-3"><a href="http://api.ning.com:80/files/i*tFWQTF2R80J-wIQfydTacVWolcxMI2kaiTr7595CW56kZPp6j2eXutmgM3AunSddA2MnHfIUUzEJosHqFVZuo58c*DFcGd/Analyzesmall.jpg" target="_self"><img src="http://api.ning.com:80/files/i*tFWQTF2R80J-wIQfydTacVWolcxMI2kaiTr7595CW56kZPp6j2eXutmgM3AunSddA2MnHfIUUzEJosHqFVZuo58c*DFcGd/Analyzesmall.jpg?width=400" width="400" class="align-right"/></a><strong>1. Every Community is Different</strong></span></p><p dir="ltr"><span>What works well for one community, cannot be exactly replicated for another. Each community has its own values, purpose, goals, demographics and cultural norms. The success of an ambassador program for one community may be poorly incentivized for another. As such, the specific tactics, tools and approach for each community should be unique.</span></p><p dir="ltr"><strong><span class="font-size-3">2. Community is Both Strategic and Tactical</span></strong></p><p dir="ltr"><span>Community is well known as a jack-of-all trades execution role, but it’s strategic, too. At some companies, such as Airbnb, TaskRabbit, and Etsy, community is core to the product and even built into the business model. As such, community efforts are centralized around more strategic approaches with complementary execution rather than strictly social media and support. This requires a higher-level view point than one that can only be seen from the trenches.</span></p><p dir="ltr"><strong><span class="font-size-3">3. Measure, Iterate, Repeat</span></strong></p><p dir="ltr"><span>If you’re always heads down and reactive, how do you know what’s working? Taking a more process-driven approach allows you to define measurements of success upfront, evaluate progress against concrete benchmarks and then iterate both your strategies and execution accordingly.</span></p><p dir="ltr"><span>At</span> <a rel="nofollow" href="http://loyal.is"><span>Loyal,</span></a> <span>we look at building community as not so different from human system design. As community folks, we’re structuring and enabling ways for people to engage with each other within specific product, platform, budget and time constraints to reach specific business goals. And, as such, we approach our work with a process</span> <a rel="nofollow" href="http://loyal.is/community-is-a-job/"><span>not too different from design processes</span></a><span>. This is what our process looks like:<br class="kix-line-break"/></span></p><ul><li dir="ltr"><p dir="ltr"><span>Understand the vision for success</span></p></li><li dir="ltr"><p dir="ltr"><span>Define the problem or challenge</span></p></li><li dir="ltr"><p dir="ltr"><span>Determine the goals</span></p></li><li dir="ltr"><p dir="ltr"><span>Understand the constraints</span></p></li><li dir="ltr"><p dir="ltr"><span>Research -- What does the data tell us? What do we intuitively know? What do users say?</span></p></li><li dir="ltr"><p dir="ltr"><span>Set the strategy with the above in mind</span></p></li><li dir="ltr"><p dir="ltr"><span>Execute</span></p></li><li dir="ltr"><p dir="ltr"><span>Test, Measure, Iterate Repeat</span></p></li></ul><p dir="ltr"><span>While community might not be repeatable from community to community, this process is repeatable and allows us to tailor recommendations for our clients accordingly. Internally, community managers can also use this same process for project sprints. What’s your community process?</span></p><hr/><p dir="ltr"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><strong>About the Author:</strong></span></p><p dir="ltr"><span>Sarah Judd Welch is the Founder // Head of Community Design + BD at</span> <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.loyal.is/"><span>Loyal</span></a> <span>where she designs communities for startups, brands, and Fortune 100s. Find her on Twitter at </span><a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.twitter.com/sjw"><span>@sjw</span></a><span>.</span></p><p><span>Read more stories like this one at <a rel="nofollow" href="http://loyal.is/">http://loyal.is</a>.</span></p><p><em>Image via iStockphoto.</em></p></div>Why I Don't Like The Term "Troll"http://cultivate.ning.com/xn/detail/6618825:BlogEntry:96512014-02-26T17:57:37.000ZCrystalhttp://cultivate.ning.com/community/CrystalC<div><p>I'm finding more and more that I'm uncomfortable with the way that the term "troll" is becoming a catch-all word for "person who's doing something I don't like." It's an easy word to use: say "troll" and everyone says "Ahh," and nods their head in empathy. <a href="http://cultivate.ning.com/ning-blog/dealing-with-trolls-4-snippits" target="_self">I've used this shorthand myself</a>. And I'm resolving to stop using it and find out what's really behind the "troll."&#160;</p>
<p><a href="http://knowyourmeme.com/photos/187824-some-men-just-want-to-watch-the-world-burn" target="_blank"><img src="http://i2.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/original/000/187/824/media_http26mediatumb_uafbm.jpg.scaled500.jpg" class="align-right" style="padding: 5px;" width="257" height="206" /></a>I think the turning point for me has been the recent Ars Technica article summing up a Canadian psychology journal article. Even the title is irksome: "<a href="http://arstechnica.com/science/2014/02/science-confirms-online-trolls-are-horrible-people-also-sadists/" target="_blank">Science confirms: Online trolls are horrible people (also, sadists!)</a>" Almost every commentary I saw on the piece took the form of "A-ha! I was right! Trolls are terrible, awful, no-good people!"</p>
<p>While it's true that there are some people on the internet who just really enjoy causing, stoking, and/or watching chaos happening online, that number is relatively small (and fairly concentrated). To give some anecdotal perspective, GetSatisfaction founders Lane Becker and Thor Muller recently spoke at an event about their early experiences at the company. They found that the moment they encountered their first real troll, a member whose sole purpose appeared to be to cause disruption and discontent and could not be reasoned with, was about 50,000 users in. Becker described that as ultimately uplifting: yeah, they had a troll, but the other 49,999 people in the communities were pretty decent human beings.&#160;</p>
<p>Labeling a member as a troll is dehumanizing, a dangerous mindset for community managers to get into. We are literally saying (albeit subconsciously) "this member doesn't deserve to be seen as another human being, but as a deformed, inhuman <em>thing</em>."&#160;It's become such a loaded word that once it enters a conversation, it taints what we hear afterwards. Once someone is labeled a "troll," anything they say starts to be viewed through troll-tinted glasses, even when they are being fairly reasonable. Instead of encountering a disruptive user and immediately jumping to this:&#160;</p>
<p><a href="http://api.ning.com:80/files/aoDdz4faSULgBG-QtLBxm5zjAisLEx2joXJASmGPiF4eVqoZbvMZu1NZawKr7dTsmSCI36iKI-LUg36dM6b3*pUPzP7XEg*v/trollinthedungeon.gif" target="_self"><img src="http://api.ning.com:80/files/aoDdz4faSULgBG-QtLBxm5zjAisLEx2joXJASmGPiF4eVqoZbvMZu1NZawKr7dTsmSCI36iKI-LUg36dM6b3*pUPzP7XEg*v/trollinthedungeon.gif?width=400" width="400" class="align-center" /></a></p>
<p></p>
<p>Let's look at ways that we can figure out why this person is causing a disruption.&#160;</p>
<ul>
<li>Is this member upset about something involving your product/community? If so, what's causing their frustration and how can you help them? Does a new product not work like the old product did? Offer them some help getting familiar with it. Are instructions not as clear as they could be? Look at how you can revise them.</li>
<li>Is there a misunderstanding or a mistake happening? Is there a way you can prevent that in the future?&#160;</li>
<li>Does the member need to feel that someone's listening to what they're saying? How can you show them you're listening?</li>
</ul>
<p>Almost every article about traits or skills necessary for community management lists Empathy pretty high up. Make sure to turn your empathy filter on before labeling someone as a troll - you might just turn their behavior around.&#160;</p>
<p><span class="font-size-3">What are your thoughts? Do you think "Troll" is a necessary definition in community management or are you going to rethink casual use of it?&#160;</span></p>
<p></p>
<p><em>Images via&#160;<a href="http://knowyourmeme.com">Know Your Meme</a>,&#160;<a href="http://dubbledeckerbus.tumblr.com/post/46534672104" target="_blank">Tumblr</a></em></p>
</div>White Paper: 5 Questions for Selecting an Online Community Platformhttp://cultivate.ning.com/xn/detail/6618825:BlogEntry:95612014-02-21T22:00:00.000ZCrystalhttp://cultivate.ning.com/community/CrystalC<div><img src="http://api.ning.com/files/OSDnqVdqkHv1HBrMygagj7qS0ZNmMzcLPwW**gDIH3eOD2DCcdg1i7JQdImrytiCpcP29-roy7qGSDCScs8Zi9mh3wHAYYE8/CoverSocialShare.png?width=400"></div><div><link href="//cdn-images.mailchimp.com/embedcode/classic-081711.css" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" ></link>
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<p>Today, we're proud to announce a project that's been in the works for a while: A collaboration with Community Pioneer F. Randall Farmer to produce this exclusive white paper - "Five Questions for Selecting an Online Community Platform."&#160;</p>
<p>Randy is&#160;co-host of the <a href="http://socialmediaclarity.net"><i>Social Media Clarity</i></a> podcast,&#160;a <a href="http://www.linkedin.com/in/frandallfarmer#profile-patents">prolific social media innovator</a>, and&#160;<em>literally</em> co-wrote the book on&#160;<i><a href="http://shop.oreilly.com/product/9780596159801.do?cmp=af-code-book-product_cj_9781449382568_7085710">Building Web Reputation Systems</a>.</i> We were very excited to bring him on board for this much needed project. While there are numerous books, blogs, and white papers out there to help Community Managers grow and manage their communities, there's no true guide to how to pick the right kind of platform for your community.&#160;</p>
<p>In this white paper, Randy has developed five key questions that can help determine what platform suits your community best. This platform agnostic guide covers top level content permissions, contributor identity, community size, costs, and infrastructure. It truly is the first guide of its kind and we're delighted to share it with you.</p>
<p>To download "Five Questions for Selecting an Online Community Platform," simply fill out the form below and you'll be taken to a download page. Be sure to come back here and let us know your thoughts and comments on Randy's theories.&#160;</p>
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</div>CMX Summit 2014: Trust, Collaboration, and Communityhttp://cultivate.ning.com/xn/detail/6618825:BlogEntry:97222014-02-14T17:52:33.000ZCrystalhttp://cultivate.ning.com/community/CrystalC<div><p>Last week, David Spinks and the team at TheCommunityManager.com gathered together over 300 community professionals for a first year conference that proved to be highly polished and extremely informative - <a href="http://cmxsummit.com/" target="_blank">CMX Summit</a>. Here are our takeaways:</p>
<p><strong><em>Why Should They? Trust Strategies for Every Situation</em> - Robin Dreeke, Head of the FBI's Behavioral Analysis Program</strong></p>
<p>Building trust with a community is the foundation for everything a community manager does. Robin led us through his model for trust, including taking time to understand where others are coming from, suspending your ego when helping others, providing factoids rather than excuses, and managing expectations. What building trust all comes down to, says Robin, is helping people discover what they want and helping them to achieve it.&#160;</p>
<p><a href="http://api.ning.com:80/files/wxWEJX1q6daJneoCKlPCgUzVHLPqPMQHXbeWo6TET-nF5EHKJwVi*9gHSZWYpxjoosfgClis8VreR7muMVmF4yoypSpQJm14/DavidMcMillianWateringthewellTwitter.jpg?width=400" target="_self"><img src="http://api.ning.com:80/files/wxWEJX1q6daJneoCKlPCgUzVHLPqPMQHXbeWo6TET-nF5EHKJwVi*9gHSZWYpxjoosfgClis8VreR7muMVmF4yoypSpQJm14/DavidMcMillianWateringthewellTwitter.jpg?width=300" width="300" class="align-right" /></a></p>
<p><strong><em>Intro to Community Psychology and the "Sense of Community" Theory</em> - Dr. David McMillian, Community/Clinical Psychologist</strong></p>
<p>The <a href="http://www.wright-house.com/psychology/sense-of-community.html" target="_blank">Sense of Community Theory</a>&#160;is approaching its 30th anniversary, but it just as relevant as ever, and having David McMillian run us through it was a unique treat. What will really stick with me was David's closing remarks (transcribed by Shannon Byrne for <a href="http://thecommunitymanager.com/2014/02/06/4-elements-to-creating-a-sense-of-community-by-dr-david-mcmillan/" target="_blank">The Community Manager</a>):&#160;</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“Go home and tell someone something a little too much. Take a risk. Maybe they will tell you something. If they do, take, catch it, hold it. Tell them that they belong to you, that you’re going to reserve a special place just for them. Tell them that they matter. Being connected doesn’t mean you have to sacrifice, you sacrifice because you care. The more expectations you create, the better you’ll dance with them. Give something of value and accept something you don’t have that’s of value to you. Learn, teach, grow, and prepare them for the day that you’re not going to be there. Then tell the story about the people you love. Create rituals, symbols, and traditions then tell them your ability to build a community has grown.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p><strong><em>Crafting a Self-Sustaining Community Culture: The Power of Ritual, Purpose, and Shared Identity</em> - Emily Castor, Director of Community Relations at Lyft</strong></p>
<p>Seeing Emily present is always a delight and she is definitely the expert right now on building a company culture that becomes truly ingrained in your community (and vice versa). Lyft's pink mustaches and fist bumps are so much more than just gimmicks. These rituals and totems speak to a basic human need for something to build an identity around. These rituals scale organically and create a cultural identity, which then allows powerful one to one interactions to happen without the community manager needing to be involved. &#160;&#160;</p>
<p><strong><em>When Customers are your Product: Lessons from Hundreds of Collaborative Consumption Communities</em> - Lauren Anderson, Chief Knowledge Officer at Collaborative Lab</strong></p>
<p>Carrying on the peer to peer theme was Lauren Anderson of Collaborative Lab. Covering various companies that have built their business upon their customers' collaboration (and therefore built on community), she identified three key themes for community building for collaborative communities: Strong Values, Trust &amp; Transparency, and Empowerment and Involvement.</p>
<p><strong><em>Building Branch and Potluck - Lessons in Developing Community Products</em> - Josh Miller, Founder of Branch</strong></p>
<p>Fresh off the announcement of being acquired by Facebook, Branch Founder Josh Miller sat down for a Q&amp;A about community development. Josh shared some learnings from the difference between Branch and Potluck, most notably that people craft comments to their perceived audience. In this way, an intimate setting allows people to be their authentic selves more than a larger, more open setting.&#160;</p>
<p><strong><em>The Evolution of Communities - Social Design and Key Metrics for Every Stage</em> - Ligaya Tichy, Angel Investor, former Community Lead for AirBnB</strong></p>
<p>Ligaya Tichy is already a legend in the community industry, helping share the early community stages at Yelp and AirBnB. Her <a href="http://www.ligayatichy.com/1/post/2014/02/community-comes-together-at-last-at-cmx-summit.html" target="_blank">entire presentation</a>&#160;is full of actionable insights and really understandable breakdowns of the metrics that community managers should be keeping an eye on. Something I hadn't been familiar with before (but will now be swearing by) is her useful baseline for healthy community activity: 30% of your user base should be active monthly; 10% should be active daily, and 10% should be active concurrently on any given day.&#160;</p>
<p><a href="http://api.ning.com:80/files/wxWEJX1q6dYqbloOsRGoOandXIqcpg8agRhXJFVZpe23JRIlA4A9279ujS7rL3RrGP4pK4HFwvkvc*cP-s66Wym2LjD8XSJY/ScreenShot20140214at9.36.21AM.png" target="_self"><img src="http://api.ning.com:80/files/wxWEJX1q6dYqbloOsRGoOandXIqcpg8agRhXJFVZpe23JRIlA4A9279ujS7rL3RrGP4pK4HFwvkvc*cP-s66Wym2LjD8XSJY/ScreenShot20140214at9.36.21AM.png" width="570" class="align-center" /></a></p>
<p><strong><em>Hooked: How to Build Habit-Forming Community Systems</em> - Nir Eyal, Author of "Hooked"</strong></p>
<p>I'm a big fan of Nir Eyal, and we reviewed <a href="http://cultivate.ning.com/ning-blog/forumcon-2013-nir-eyal-hooked-model" target="_self">his presentation from ForumCon 2013</a>&#160;and we're even more excited to put his ATARI theory into action now.&#160;</p>
<p><strong><em>Building the 500 Startups Community on a Global Scale</em> - Dave McClure, Founding parter at 500Startups</strong></p>
<p>Dave McClure is one of the most colorful personalities in the venture capital scene and shared some of his experiences in early communities as well as nourishing a community culture at 500 Startups. "There’s always going to be tensions between marketing, sales, product, design, UX/UI," McClure admits, "but community can bring it all together."</p>
<p><strong><em>Lessons from the History of Communities – Why They Matter Today and Tomorrow</em> - Ellen Leanse, Apple's First User Evangelist</strong></p>
<p>The last speaker of the day, Ellen Leanse, was truly inspirational. Forget Sheryl Sandberg or Marissa Mayer, Ellen is who I want to be when I grow up. As Apple's first User Evangelist, she guided Apple through the particularly turbulent time after the departure of Co-Founder Steve Jobs. There is so much that I learned from her in the too-brief time she spoke, but the main thoughts I'll be keeping with me are, echoing the days's first speaker, that what you share with the community should be about what&#160;<strong>they</strong> need, not you. And that a community will hold your company accountable to be the best that you can be - so live up to it!&#160;</p>
<p><a href="http://api.ning.com:80/files/wxWEJX1q6dYjOuBrWeGlczySu1y8ubfWw8UDG7sB09VSsxKu1vbfl1yHIJ0OMKd21Ga30cVZ6G1UGkovv13yYsozNyqqG311/ScreenShot20140214at9.43.24AM.png" target="_self"><img src="http://api.ning.com:80/files/wxWEJX1q6dYjOuBrWeGlczySu1y8ubfWw8UDG7sB09VSsxKu1vbfl1yHIJ0OMKd21Ga30cVZ6G1UGkovv13yYsozNyqqG311/ScreenShot20140214at9.43.24AM.png?width=300" width="300" class="align-right" /></a>I think the biggest think I took away from CMX Summit was an overwhelming feeling of love: for my job, for the community I have the privilege to manage, and for the community of community managers I get to be a part of. As part of her talk, Ligaya Tichy had little jars of Play-Doh handed out to attendees. Squeezing something, she explained, helps with public speaking... it gives an outlet for the adrenaline that flows when you're talking to a group of people. This encouragement to attendees to go speak within and outside of their companies is endemic of the culture of learning that was evident at CMX Summit. Speakers were actively engaged in each others' presentations, tweeting about them and referencing them later in their own. Whether someone has three months, three years, or three decades of experience in this field, we all have something to learn from each other. This year's attendee may be next year's speaker and vice versa. It truly is a great time to be a Community Manager</p>
<p>If you're sad to have missed CMX Summit, you can <a href="https://www.brighttalk.com/community/content-marketing/channel/10753" target="_blank">catch up on all the speakers</a>&#160;thanks to sponsor BrightTalk. And if you're encouraged to attend another community management conference, the <a href="http://www.virtualcommunitysummit.com/" target="_blank">Virtual Communities Summit</a>&#160;in London next week is sure to be another great event. You can also check out these CMX Summit posts from other attendees:</p>
<p><a href="http://www.evanhamilton.com/cmx-summit-community-management" target="_blank">What we learned (about ourselves) at CMX Summit</a>&#160;by Evan Hamilton</p>
<p><a href="http://loyal.is/cmx-summit-take-aways/" target="_blank">10 Take-Aways From the First-Ever CMX Summit</a>&#160;by Shannon Byrne for LoyalCX</p>
<p><a href="http://thecommunitymanager.com/category/cmx-summit/" target="_blank">CMX Summit Liveblogs</a>&#160;from TheCommunityManager.com</p>
<p><a href="http://www.dnnsoftware.com/blog/cid/426748/Steal-These-Community-Management-Tips-from-CMX-Summit-Presenters" target="_blank">Community Management Tips Learned from CMX Summit</a>&#160;by&#160;Dennis Shiao of DNN</p>
<p><a href="http://www.feverbee.com/2014/02/cmxsummit-and-the-new-frontier.html" target="_blank">CMXSummit And The New Frontier</a>&#160;from Feverbee</p>
<p><a href="http://seen.co/event/cmx-summit-san-francisco-ca-2014-8705" target="_blank">Twitter Trending Wrap-Up</a>&#160;from Seen</p>
<p><em>Images via <a href="https://twitter.com/500startups/status/431555239271862272" target="_blank">Twitter</a>,&#160;<a href="https://twitter.com/wateringthewell/status/431498478468866048/photo/1" target="_blank">Adriana Cerundolo</a>,&#160;<a href="http://instagram.com/p/kF9qMEQLSL/" target="_blank">Krysta Gahagen</a></em></p>
</div>8 Signs Your Community Is In Troublehttp://cultivate.ning.com/xn/detail/6618825:BlogEntry:94972014-02-04T23:59:04.000ZRichard Millingtonhttp://cultivate.ning.com/community/RichardMillington<div><p>Your online community won't die overnight. That never happens. Most communities end with members gradually drifting away.</p><p>There are some clear danger signals that your community is going downhill, these are a few to watch out for:</p><ol><li><b>No new posts in 24 hours.</b> If your community goes an entire day (except Christmas) without a single interaction you’re on the brink of failure. Push the panic button. Engage heavily in one to one interactions to inject activity.</li><li><b>Key members have gone missing.</b> Name your top 10 members. Have any of them been posting less frequently recently? Why? Find out and adapt.<a href="http://api.ning.com:80/files/mhrng7eeJg3Vv53DJSFvaSEbnS3ejud8DKnbT6W0FizgJ0MeI8kV4sGsxF2ETawviB9iyDeei2JZdTIR3FM0PS-RFtKngLu5/communitydying.png" target="_self"><img src="http://api.ning.com:80/files/mhrng7eeJg3Vv53DJSFvaSEbnS3ejud8DKnbT6W0FizgJ0MeI8kV4sGsxF2ETawviB9iyDeei2JZdTIR3FM0PS-RFtKngLu5/communitydying.png?width=400" width="400" class="align-right"/></a></li><li><b>Less members are joining.</b> Community members are transient, they get jobs, move location, start families. You need fresh blood to keep the community active. Regularly measure the number of new members joining, when it dips (or slows) take action to recruit new members.</li><li><b>A new rival community is rapidly gaining momentum.</b> If you see a new community in your field rapidly gaining momentum, it means you’re not providing something these members need.</li><li><b>Posts go unanswered.</b> The lack of conversation is a clear flag something is wrong. When posts start going unanswered, people begin to drift away.</li><li><b>Declining sector/topic/passion.</b> <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.uk-ct.net/">UK-CT</a> is a dying community for a video game which is over 10 years old. It’s entire audience has moved on to other games. It’s niche is dying, it didn’t stick with the players.</li><li><b>Lack of friendliness.</b> Whilst arguments are important, friendliness is more important. Do members seem less friendly recently? Do they lack familiarity with each other and previous community discussions? Do they know how the top members in a community are?</li><li><b>Boring discussions.</b> Subjective, but important. Do the discussions feel like they’re less interesting recently? Is there a poor quality of things to talk about?</li></ol><p>Keep an eye for these signals and react aggressively when you spot one. Don’t be passive, by the time you spot a signal, it might already be almost impossible to reverse the problem.</p></div>Creating Healthy Communities in Social Media [Video]http://cultivate.ning.com/xn/detail/6618825:BlogEntry:91952014-01-16T22:43:25.000ZCrystalhttp://cultivate.ning.com/community/CrystalC<div><p>On Thursday, we had the pleasure of hosting Ric Dragon, CEO and co-founder of DragonSearch, for an enlightening hour on Creating Healthy Communities in Social Media. From the origins of the term "community" to how dysfunctional communities are like families, this was a fast-paced hour packed with information. Check out the video below and read on for highlights.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><iframe width="500" height="281" src="//player.vimeo.com/video/84343642" frameborder="0" webkitallowfullscreen="" mozallowfullscreen="" allowfullscreen=""></iframe></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://vimeo.com/84343642">Creating Healthy Communities in Social Media with Ric Dragon</a> from <a href="http://vimeo.com/ning">Ning</a> on <a href="https://vimeo.com">Vimeo</a>.</p>
<p>The most interesting takeaway from this talk for me were the analogies between functional families and functional communities. All healthy families will have a small amount of dysfunction. Ric argues that the essential elements for functional and healthy communities are:&#160;</p>
<p><strong>Empathy</strong> - Being able to feel the pain of others and identify it. When large groups of people have a lack of empathy, bad things happen.&#160;</p>
<p><strong>Addressing the Elephant in the Room</strong> - a taboo or big element that members don't want to talk about can be the downfall of a community.</p>
<p><strong>Boundaries</strong> - Blurring of the boundaries that mark what's appropriate interaction between community members can be a slide down a dysfunctional hill.&#160;</p>
<p><strong>Conflict Extremes</strong> - While conflict can be healthy, too much conflict can be detrimental and needs to be addressed.&#160;</p>
<p><span class="font-size-4">What did you appreciate most in this webinar?&#160;</span></p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p><span style="text-decoration: underline;">Other resources mentioned by Ric:</span>&#160;</p>
<p><a href="http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2012/01/13/asch-elevator-experiment/" target="_blank">The Asch Conformity Experiments</a>&#160;</p>
<p><a href="http://www.thekmiecs.com/marketing-advertising/the-5-types-of-roles-you-need-in-your-community/" target="_blank">Adam Kmiec's 5 Roles in Community</a>&#160;</p>
<p><a href="http://www.moxnes.com/" target="_blank">The Deep Role Model (Paul Moxnes)</a>&#160;</p>
<p><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tuckman's_stages_of_group_development" target="_blank">Tuckman's 5 Stages of Group Development</a>&#160;</p>
<p><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunbar's_number" target="_blank">Dunbar's Number</a>&#160;</p>
<p><a href="http://www.ted.com/talks/sherry_turkle_alone_together.html" target="_blank">Sherry Turkle, Alone Together (TED Talk)</a></p>
<p><a href="http://books.google.com/books?hl=en&amp;lr=&amp;id=nN5DFNT-6ToC&amp;oi=fnd&amp;pg=PA1&amp;dq=dunbar+gossip+theory&amp;ots=7_L9506OTd&amp;sig=tL3tbjzc74T3ZvDcIoPXu2Gf9dw#v=onepage&amp;q=dunbar%20gossip%20theory&amp;f=false" target="_blank">Grooming, Gossip, and the Evolution of Language</a>&#160;(Robin Dunbar)</p>
<hr />
<p><span>Creating Healthy Communities is part of the&#160;</span><a href="http://cultivate.ning.com/community-management-talks" target="_self">Ning Community Management Talks</a><span>&#160;series. Past presentations cover topics including strategies for generating activity,&#160;managing growth, facilitating member engagement,&#160;</span><a href="http://cultivate.ning.com/ning-blog/metrics-and-measurement-for-community-health-video" target="_self">metrics and measurement for community health</a><span>, and the science behind it all.</span></p>
</div>